My Love Grows in the Dark
by neograce
Summary: Pre Little Vampire plot: The emergence of a form of help the Sackville-Bagg family couldn't have predicted. Is she helpful? Is she harmful? Who is she exactly? Gregory/OC
1. Chapter I

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises.

Author Note: This is a story I've been playing with in my MacBook stickies, and I started it for my own amusement, I hope ya'll like it and don't be afraid to drop me a review of any kind or nature. I'd love some feedback.

- O -

Twigs broke, and feet blistered as she ran.

With a quick glance over her left shoulder, she saw nothing but shifting shadows. Her dirtied sneakers pounded into the soft soil as her body lunged ever forward at the eerie sight. The air broke into puffs in front of her, reminding her of just how frigid a night it was. Her lungs began to burn; she knew that she had to slow. With a great leap from the tip of her toe she managed to grab a hold of the bark of a tree she was about to pass. Her body tumbled to the earthy floor at the force of her halt. She nearly lost her shoes as she slumped down onto the protruding rooted base of it.

"...I feel like an icicle's been shoved down my throat," she grumbled airily, trying to massage her neck to cease the burned gasps that were still bombarding her body.

Just as the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

Blood curdling howls filled the air. Birds and mammals could be heard fleeing and scurrying around in the brush around her. She could only hope that the rasping of her voice had gone unheard.

Without a moments delay, the owners of the all too loud baying came flying through the forest. She could hear their heavy foot falls as they panted past her hiding place.

Sweat poured heavily down her temples. Her eyes burned. Her hands shook in absolute fright.

They didn't stop.

They didn't give her so much as a sniff.

Shock filled her. She didn't move for a long moment. She couldn't move. Even after the sounds of the scavenging bloodhounds had long since past her. She remained planted in shock and surprise at the canines defective odor detecting senses. Small breaths began to slowly ease out of her burning lungs. 'Well I'll be damned,' she thought with an exhausted smirk. Counting her blessings, she re-fitted her satchel behind her and sat up on shaking legs to once more set off into the thick brush of trees.

She followed the only bit of light in the whole forest. The tiny sliver of moon in the sky. She trotted quickly, breaking into any clout of dirt or patch of toad stools that was fortunate enough to come in path with her boots. On a few occasions, however she would stop to collect an herb or two that would catch her eye. But such occasions were few and far in between. Considering the current situation, and not to mention her already steady collection nearly bursting forth from her satchel. Haste was essential in this race. She continued forward for an hour before the outline of an ivy enclosed gate made itself visible upon her horizon. "What the hell?" she squinted at the foggy outline. "Wait a damn minute-!"

She burst ahead into a long legged sprint. With tonight's foreseeable finish line in sight, she made short work of the distance, she had to stop herself from very nearly colliding into the gate in her haste. Her arms broke from her sides to allow herself to fall and cling against the iron. She also freed her knees to buckle beneath her for a moment to quell some of her exhaustion. Numb fingers blindly searched the ivy riddled gate for a way of entrance, but to no avail.

"Shit!" she spat. Tired and desperate she found a foothold on the bottom rung of the gate and reached forward with both arms to thrust herself upward in an adrenaline driven gymnastics feat to hoist herself to the top of the gate.

Fingers clung easily to the wrapping tines of ivy. She squinted her eyes to see what lie ahead, but cursed once more when she could see nothing but the same rolling white mist from the forest.

Without a second thought, she boldly leaped down from the height of the gate. But as expected her knees gave way at her descent and her balance planted her face first into the ground.

She breathed in a mouth of fertilizer.

"Fuck!" she spewed this time, reaching up with a pale had to inspect the souvenir on her cheek from a sharp rock. Smearing the blood onto her hand, she grit her teeth and pulled herself into a stand before continuing ahead into the smog.

After much aimless wandering a small box-like black shape appeared in her line of sight. Craning her neck and hurrying herself forward, its features began to define. "A house," she breathed elatedly, finding what she had hoped to encounter.

Her panicked heart began to slow. Maybe there was hope for her yet.

Trekking forward at a more leisurely stride, her feet rolled onward tiredly. "I'm so exhaus-"

Until one of them got caught up in a jutted root.

Once again sending her careening into the moist soil.

She blinked in complete disbelief. She tried to quiet the frustrated scream that tore her throat, but found herself unsuccessful. "Ahhhhh! I swear to God!" she muttered angrily at the soil as she tried to reassemble her composure. Drenched in dirt, she pushed herself onto her hands and knees with the intention of standing, but stopped short when a small shimmer caught her eye. A bit curious, she army crawled a bit closer to the glittering rock?

A breeze blew threw her wild mangy hair. The fog lifted some and she could just barely make out that it was in fact a rock she was seeing.

Her elbows sunk a bit more into the moist soil.

An eyebrow quirked curiously before she scooted herself forward to touch the curious oval shaped rock. She found that her fingers sunk into hollows. 'Writing?' she thought as she took her other hand and swiped furiously at the air to clear up some of the fog so that she might see better.

Her hand began to shake.

Her spine tingled.

"This is a cemeta-"

A loud hiss sounded off directly into her right ear, followed by a burning sensation and the smell of burning flesh.

Overwhelmed and terrified beyond comprehension she hastily grabbed at her assaulted orifice.

With a great deal more effort she managed to grapple her body into a standing position.

"Who's there?!" she shrieked out, reaching her free hand into her back jean pocket to thumb the handle of the dagger she kept there.

Nothing could be heard for a long moment after her outburst. Not a sound.

Not until a large gust of wind tore through the graveyard. Her hair whirled and slapped painfully into her face. Shakily, she moved her short curled tresses out of her eyes, afraid of what might have materialized in her moment of distraction.

Breathing heavily, her head zipped in the direction of the marble structure she had been trying to reach. That's not a house! This is a cemetery! That's a-"A fuckin' mausoleum!" she screeched, in a fit of rage she turned behind her and began to kick the headstone.

"Careful," a voice spoke out from behind her.

Her foot halted mid-air in its assault.

Surprised and frightened tears began to gather in her eyes.

"You might disturb the dead," it finished with amusement.

Her pounding head slipped in the direction of the speaker, only to be met with a tight lipped menacing smile.

Quickly she blinked, then tightly closed her eyes. Gathering her wits, she tore the dagger from the butt of her jeans and shakily pointed it in the direction of the threatening looking boy.

"Take one step," she swallowed. "A-and I'll plunge this straight into your neck," she gazed at him warily. "...Sooner than you can blink!" she sputtered out when the boy's eerie smile didn't waver.

The boy cocked his head in amusement. Her threat passing over him completely. He began to take a step.

But halted in surprise when the glistening piece of iron met him halfway, just as promised.

He let air escape his mouth. He was impressed. This quivering mortal could kill. As the direction of the wind changed he could even smell the dried blood upon her blade.

"Did you think I was joking?!" she spat. "You're going to let me go, and I'm not gonna have to actually drive this metal through your neck!" she gripped the dagger with both hands now. "Okay?!" she rasped, the wound on her cheek still fresh and open as a drop of blood pooled at her chin and dripped to the ground onto a leaf.

The boy's eyes were trained on that leaf.

She gulped. Before she could understand what had happened, she felt the weight of the boy throwing her against the tombstone. She could feel his fingernails, his _long_ fingernails, dig through her jacket and into her numbed arms. Drawing even more blood from her body, as she felt it gather at her elbows.

She took in a deep breath as her wide eyes looked into the leering face of the boy. His fanged mouth opened in a snarl.

'Vampire!' her thoughts provided. Automatically, her eyes fell shut and a mantra of words began to fall from her mouth.

The Vampire's mouth quickly fell shut and he withdrew as a circle of hungry flames erupted around the girl.

After only a moment, the fires diminished.

The girls resources now completely depleted, she let her head fall back against the epitaph of the headstone and looked up to the night sky.

"Witch!" she heard the Vampire gasp before the stars in the sky disappeared.


	2. Chapter II

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises.

Author Note: I apologize for spelling errors and such, I'm beta-reader-less! I hope ya'll still like it anyway!

- O -

She awoke to the overpowering stench of mildew and quite possibly a cloud of asbestos. Running her tongue over the roof of her mouth, she swallowed dryly before collapsing into a coughing fit. She nearly felt her soul leave her when she felt a tiny hand beating her on the back, in an effort to help?

'On second thought, maybe I should stop coughing and let the dust choke me,' she thought tiredly, refusing to open her eyes.

"Here," she heard a small feminine voice say as she felt her body shift more upright and felt the chill of a cold hand trying to place what felt like a cup of some kind into her hand.

Warily, her bleary crusted eyes opened to reveal a well polished gold burnished chalice; filled to the rim with water. For a moment she just gazed blankly at it, but then it reached her brain. She sprung into action immediately, eagerly gulping down the tepid water. She could feel it diving down her throat in droplets.

Distantly, she thought she could hear the small voice giggling.

Upon downing the last bit of water, she slumped back against what she could feel to be the uneven surface of a cave wall. Blearily, she finally looked to find the owner of the small female voice. A petite flaxen blond child with bright curious eyes.

"Hello!" she suddenly chirped.

"Hel-lo," she croaked back. She cleared her throat. "Hello," she tried again, satisfied this time.

The child giggled again.

"..."

"I've been told you're a Witch!" the child gushed out. Hopping onto a large boulder so that she might get just a bit closer to the _Witch_.

_Great._

"...Is that so?" she replied sleepily.

"You are a Witch, are you not?" the child bleated, fearing disappointment.

With a quick glance at the girl, she sighed before giving a reluctant nod.

Abruptly, the young girl gave a shrill squeal, before squirming so that she was very nearly upon the Witch's lap.

The Witch cringed before giving a tired smile.

The puny girl replied in kind with a large fanged smile.

Her eyes widened exponentially in remembrance. _Fuck_ no! No more _Vampires_! The Witch's mind reeled as she tried to squish herself as close to the wall as she could get.

Giving a small cry, the alarmed Vampire child tried to calm her, "Please do not fright dear Witch! We shan't harm you!"

Her pressure against the wall decreased a bit. 'Not harm me?' The Witch grimaced before letting out a long breath. Questions swarmed her thoughts.

"...We?" she finally choked out.

"Oh yes!" the child replied immediately. "My family! You see, there's Father, Mother, dear brother Gregory and dearest brother Rudolf," she informed with a small smile.

The Witch nodded slowly, digesting that overwhelming plethora of information. Then cautiously looked to the young Vampire and managed to ask, "...and you?"

"Silly me!" she tweeted fretfully, tugging fitfully on her blond locks. "Where have my manners been! You may call me Anna, and may I ask your name dearest Witch?"

The Witch hesitated for a long moment.

Weighing that there was no harm she at last said,"...Nancy."

Nancy's eyes widened at the extremely high pitched sound Anna released at the mention of her name. "Lovely name that is! Nancy was the name of a dear friend who used to play with the doll house with me."

Nancy grimaced, secretly hoping that this namesake would not force her to take up _other _Nancy's duties to this child.

"Please, dearest Nancy, come," Anna hopped from one foot to the other. "I wish to show you around the manor," she began to tug at her hand.

- O -

Nancy looked around in disbelief and mild amusement. She certainly wouldn't call this catacomb of a home a manor. But as Anna progressed her through the _household_, she was impressed. For a dark decaying crypt it wasn't bad, especially when they reached what looked to be the main room. Decorated sparsely, but with intricately crafted bird baths and statuettes.

"Fascinating," she breathed, as she fingered the interlacing designs on one of the pillars in the room.

"I should hope so," A more seasoned voice, that definitely wasn't Anna, spoke.

Nancy froze and hastily removed her hand from the stone, almost as if the pillar had recently undergone a dip in acid. "I'm sorry," she managed before carefully turning to the older woman.

The woman gave a tight lipped smile, before descending the stairs she had come from.

As Nancy gazed at the elaborately dressed woman, she wished more and more for the less intimidating stature of Anna to return. She had lost her on the tour, Nancy, unable to keep up with Anna's quick enthusiasm, was soon left behind. She wondered if the child even knew she had lost her.

"You are the Witch," the woman finally stated, interrupting Nancy's frantic thoughts.

Nancy lifted her hand to her forehead to try to stop the incoming headache. "Yes," she replied plainly.

The woman nodded, she looked pleased.

Nancy shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable.

"Forgive me," the woman soothed. "My name is Freda Sackville-Bagg," her ringed hand extended to Nancy.

She grimaced before accepting the cold appendage, "Nancy."

"No surname?" Freda asked coyly.

For whatever reason, Vampire charm or the intimidating great posture of the Vampiress; Nancy's tongue was freed. "Ulrich...Nancy Ulrich," she held her breath.

"What a strong name," Freda praised.

Nancy exhaled.

"There you are!" Anna exclaimed in a huff pointing an accusing finger at Nancy.

Nancy blinked.

"Oh! Mother!" But Anna was easily distracted and took a place proudly at her mother's thigh, her neck craned to view her pale curl framed face. "You're back!"

"Indeed my dearest," her mother doted with an affectionate hand.

Nancy turned away, to escape the awkward sight.

Only to nearly faint from the reappearance of her assailant from the graveyard. He was leisurely leaning against the pillar she had touched earlier. His face was calculating, as if he were sizing her up.

She felt her body try to retreat backwards but stopped when she felt the chilled hand of Freda at her back.

"Oh yes," Freda drawled. "Ms. Ulrich, that would be my eldest son Gregory."

Nancy's throat burned and her eyes began to water. "Please," she rasped. "Just Nancy, call me Nancy," she spoke quickly. Risking a small glance at Freda to notice a small frozen smile.

"Very well," she spoke, then redirected her attention to her son's intimidating form. "Gregory," she gestured discreetly in an attempt to bring him closer.

Nancy watched with bated breath as her attacker kicked his buckled boot forward before striding closer. She had to grip her hands together to try to stop them from trembling.

Once he was a good foot in front of her he halted. There was a tense moment before she heard the sound of Freda clearing her throat. Which apparently was a signal for Gregory.

Nancy's eyes rose from the floor just in time to see the boy cross his arms to his chest and look to the side.

"...Sorry," he grumbled out, barely audible. When he heard no response he quirked his head to see the blank look on the Witch's face. "...For trying to kill you," he finally elaborated.

Nancy let out a breath. "Why?" she couldn't stop herself from asking. She could feel the stale air of the crypt shift as a charged atmosphere settled in. She also felt the hand at her back finally retreat as she watched the Vampire boy's face contort into a sneer.

"A good question, that is," he breathed. "Why not? I am a Vampire, am I not?" his face broke into a cruel smile. "Let's just say, had you been an ordinary mortal, you wouldn't have been so fortunate."

Nancy took deep pithy breaths to try and calm her hysteria. The reality of her situation, and just what she had fallen into, finally starting to actually manifest. "...What do you want from me?" her hands nearly drew blood, they were in such tight fists.

"Brother! How brutish you are!" the honeyed voice of Anna admonished, making herself known as she clutched herself, now at Nancy's side. "Don't mind Gregory Nancy," she looked up brightly into Nancy's face. "Brother is like a feline, he will try to fluff himself up to intimidate you, but just don't give him any mind," she winked playfully. "He's just trying to show himself off."

Nancy looked to the fluffy feline just in time to catch the scathing glare that he was trying to boil into Anna. She also couldn't ignore the light laughter of Freda as she tried to conceal her smile behind her hand.

Nancy didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Cry, she decided when she heard the deep rumbling of what could only be the Vampire boy growling.

"Now, now Gregory," his mother began. "That was no way to speak to our guest, so that teasing was well deserved my son," Freda stated sincerely and powerfully with her tight lipped smile.

Gregory huffed in response to his scolding and turned sharply on his boot so that he could stalk his way out of the room.

Just as Nancy observed the tail of the boy's plaited dreaded hair disappearing around a corner, she let out a long relieved breath.

"Forgive my son," Freda breathed. "Our curse has not been kind to him."

Nancy nodded numbly, still trying to let her brain process what had happened to her.

"Anna dearest, why don't you go see if Rudolf has returned," Freda gently patted Anna on her matted golden head, but looked only at Nancy as she spoke.

Nancy bristled as the merry Anna skipped away, disappearing into the catacomb home. She nervously began twisting the nose ring in her left nostril before turning around to face whatever the Vampiress had to say.

"You must be filled to bursting with questions?" Freda goaded gently.

Nancy blinked back in a daze before nodding. She hesitated a moment before asking the question that plagued her the most, "...Why am I...here?" She gestured vaguely around her to the Vampire's dusty home.

Freda's eyes shone with laughter. "That was to be my question, my dear. What has brought you to us this eve?" she implored curiously.

Nancy shifted nervously. "You first," she said lamely. "...Why does my being a Witch stop you from...eating me...?" she winced as she said it.

Freda blinked at her words before smiling her small smile. "Vampires favor Witch folk," she paused. "It twas a great Magician who introduced a cure to our curse," she said gently.

More questions flooded Nancy's mind but she stopped herself from asking any of them. "I don't understand," she said finally.

Freda gave a tired sigh before continuing. "We've lost the amulet, the one the Warlock enchanted for us, our means of returning to the living. My family searches for it always," she turned her head to look Nancy in the eye. "It was our hope upon Gregory's discovery of you, that you might be able to aid us," she said softly.

Nancy shuddered, overwhelmed. Before wrapping her arms around herself and looking down to her dirty mud crusted sneakers.

Disheartened by Nancy's countenance, Freda's gaze dropped as well. "It was forward of us to assume such a hope, I know and apologize for any inconvenience my family may have caused you. You are absolutely free to continue on your wa-"

"I'll help you!" Nancy sputtered suddenly.

Freda straightened to her full height in pleasant surprise.

Nancy chided herself for acting so rashly, but her thoughts drifted easily to the selfish thought of her safety if she were to team up with with this Vampire family. She had no doubts as what an advantage this ally would be. "I may not be able to help you," she confessed. "But I'll do what I can," she gave Freda an uncomfortably large smile.

Delighted, Freda gave a nod before excusing herself stating, "This is most proper news, I must inform my husband."

With those parting words, Nancy was alone. She shivered and cringed as she re-evaluated, with new perspective, her new living arrangement. The impenetrable layer of dust and mold was going to take some getting used to. Immediately, she felt herself regretting her snap decision immensely. 'Suck it up you big baby!' her mind punished. 'This is the perfect place to practice magic,' and with that gratifying thought, she could dispel her silly worries of uncleanliness. Nodding to herself, Nancy found an alcove in the spacious room with a large rock to sit down on. She gazed around nervously as she awaited the graceful return of Freda. Upon sitting on the cold stone, her body was alerted to the trauma it was experiencing. She was littered with cuts, a busted lip, and aching bones far too weak to perform even the lowest level of spell. In exhaustion she cradled her face in her hands as warm tears finally started to fall from her face. Just as she felt her body about to whimper, she heard the rustling of something falling near her leg. She bolted upright, startled to find the fluffy feline figure of Gregory crossing his arms at her.


	3. Chapter III

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises...but I wouldn't mind owning Gregory...he's yummy.

Author Note: I really do hope people are reading and enjoying this story (no reviews wound my soul, even a single word might help me along), don't be afraid to drop me some lines, I'm a friendly critter, I'd be happy to hear what ya'll are thinking ;)!

- O -

"Your bag," he stated blankly, searing her skin with his intense gaze.

Nancy wrapped her arms around her mid-section to try to cease the terrified pangs prodding her stomach.

"Aren't you going to take it?" he challenged, cocking his head to the side. The movement dislodging a dreaded hair plait, causing it to now rest over his shoulder.

Nancy eyed the bundled up strands of hair, ignoring his question altogether.

Gregory grew impatient with the Witch's blank features. "Hey, are you listenin' to me?"

At the slight snarl in his voice, Nancy's blue eyes flew upward to stare widely into a mirror of equally wide blue eyes. "...Yes," she rasped, dropping her gaze to the floor and squinting happily at the sight of her forgotten satchel. She shakily stood up and gathered here sole belongings from the slimy surface of the ground. She felt immediately relaxed by the return of her possessions and plopped her body down blissfully onto the rocky seat once more.

Gregory looked on in curiosity as Nancy removed her jacket off her person and while she was at it, removed a few bundles of tinder and what looked to be fresh herbs from her bag. She even began rolling up her pants legs. His slit eyebrow rose in fascination and bewilderment as she took those same woodland items and began to viscously scrub them against her arms, neck, and legs. All the while chanting sections of words like, "...the one...the needs...many trials...oh manon..." The only coherent sentence his Vampire hearing managed to discern from her babbling was, "In the name of the Eastern fire..." His eyes widened further upon noticing that her thoroughly rubbed limbs were now clear of the cuts and bruises that had once carved her skin.

"You've missed a spot," he spoke before he could stop himself.

Nancy's eyes shot open at the sound of his voice. Suddenly again becoming aware of who she shared company with. She forced her dilated pupils to focus again on the young Vampire. "Where?" she breathed. Her logical side arguing that she was in no state to disregard her well being for even a minute longer and continue to humor her silly fear of this Vampire boy.

Gregory numbly tapped his clawed finger to his cheek, to point out the very wound that had almost caused him to lose his wits and devour her.

There was a short moment where Nancy's mind tried to reel the memory of the blood dribbling from her chin to the ground, but she blinked her eyes rapidly before refocusing on her task. Nancy quickly saw to it to treat her omitted cheek wound and swollen lip with her herbal rub down. Once she was satisfied that all her physical wounds were dealt with; she gathered up the now _used_ materials. Then gently placed them into the bird bath at the center of the room. Pleased with her work and glad to have all of her already spell cast materials returned to her, Nancy neatly stuffed her satchel shut. She hesitated only slightly this time to look into the undead boy's eyes. "Thank you," she acknowledged him with a large forced face splitting smile.

Gregory nearly recoiled from the unexpected gratitude, but the even more unexpected big mouthed smile nearly sent him toppling over. Significantly flustered, and irritated by being caught off guard, Gregory grumbled. Turning on his heel, he sulked away in, what was becoming to Nancy, his usual manor.

The Witch let out another relieved breath at his departure before slinging her body up onto the large sitting rock she'd been using. She crossed her arms behind her head before closing her eyes, intending to get a nap in before being exposed to anymore Vampires.

- O -

She awoke to what sounded like an argument.

"Freda, my love," a deep voice spoke quickly. "Taking a Witch into our ranks may not guarantee our success." It reasoned fitfully.

"Yes dear," Freda dismissed. "But she certainly could not hurt our search," she spoke coyly.

"We do not know that," he argued. "She very well might be of the malignant Witch kind," he spoke harshly.

It was at this moment that Nancy decided to reveal herself. Lest this Vampire slander her opportunity to stay within the comfort of his family's protection. She cleared her throat, before throwing her sore legs down to dangle from her perch on the large boulder.

The bickering couple recoiled in surprise. The snarling face of the male Vampire voice being revealed to her as he stood protectively in front of Freda.

"Frederick," Freda spoke gently, placing her ringed hand upon her husband's shoulder. "This would be our Witch," she wandered to the side of his shielding, gesturing to Nancy. To return the gesture, the Witch in limelight hopped down to the crypt floor in response.

Nancy flinched as she felt his eyes scrutinize her throughly. Her hands nervously wrung the end of her torn shirt under his silent judgement.

"State your coven," he demanded.

Nancy's eyes rose up to eye Frederick in confrontation. "...I don't have one," she said carefully.

Frederick breathed indignantly through his nose. "...Preposterous," he spoke.

Nancy's fiddling hands wandered into her jean pockets. "Don't you think if I had a coven, I would be with them now?" she said rhetorically, putting more confidence in her voice than she actually felt. She had a gut feeling that she would would have to word her sentences carefully in order to convince this Vampire patriarch to allow her to stay in his company.

He appeared to contemplate her answer for a moment. Then he at last nodded to himself, looking satisfied. Given the normally exclusive solitary lifestyle of the Witch folk he had observed from his time he found it easy to believe that this characteristic of Witch kind had not changed. He gave the child another look, her reasoning seemed sound, but a bigger question posed threat," Why do you roam in solitude?"

Nancy's upper lip quivered as she felt the truth fall from her lips, "I was born to a mortal family."

Frederick and Freda's fanged mouths fell open. A rarity indeed.

But Nancy spoke before any more questions could be asked. "I would prefer not to talk about my life before this graveyard," she spoke firmly. "That is my only request of you and your family for my services," she said plainly, looking to the side of her, to eye the bird bath littered with her spent magic debris.

Frederick's black eyebrow rose almost to the height of his widows peak. "Do tell, what services might you offer my family?"

Nancy swallowed before forcing herself to look into his eyes. "You search for an amulet," she spoke slowly. "...Correct?" her eyes explored both faces in the Vampire pair.

Frederick looked skeptical.

"I may not be able to help you find it," she allowed to slip. "But I have some resources that might give valuable information."

"..."

"...Maybe I might even be able to recreate an amulet," she mumbled jokingly into the tense silence.

Freda and Frederick gave each other simultaneous looks of hope before Frederick cleared his throat. "Very well," he said curtly. Giving Nancy a nod before he whisked away from her presence, striding down a dark corridor with his cloak whirling behind him.

Nancy blinked tiredly, "What just happened?" She gazed imploringly at Freda.

Freda showed her small smile before walking up to place her hand on Nancy's jacketed shoulder. "He's pleased," she informed with a graceful dip of her head.

"Great," Nancy mumbled. '...I was just kidding...recreate an enchanted amulet?...What do I think I'm doing here?' Exhausted with the weight of new expectations. She stepped away from Freda's grasp to return to the comfort of her boulder. She heard a small laugh escape Freda as she once more reclined onto the cold surface. She shot Freda a questioning look.

"You seem to be most fond of that particular spot," she spoke almost fondly.

Nancy's eyes drooped in silent affirmation before she allowed her weariness and grogginess from her earlier nap to take hold.

- O -

The next time she awoke it was to the muffled chattering of birds. Pleased to be rid of the night dwelling creatures that had flooded the evening before, she granted herself her first true smile in a while. Giving a mighty stretch and hoisting her body forwards off of her designated rock. The filtered light from above revealed all the swirling glittering dust clouds migrating around the crypt. Nancy's smile quickly became a grimace. "Ah, the beauty of lung disease." Her hand recoiled from the face of the boulder she was leaning on when she felt the creepy crawlings of pill bugs at her fingers. "Lovely," she grumbled wiping both hands onto the front of her jeans. 'This just gets better and better.'

Twisting her face into an ugly snarl, she retrieved her satchel from its place precariously balanced against the limestone wall and clung to it as a child would their favorite plush. Then she waltzed her way over to the opposite end of the Sackville-Bagg cavern. One deep breath and potential choking fit later, her trained eyes carefully evaluated every nook and corridor of the space around her.

With no hope in site, Nancy reluctantly found herself trying to navigate the labyrinth of a catacomb home Anna had attempted to show her only a few hours earlier.

- O -

"God. Damn. It." she seethed throwing her hands up wildly to grab at her unruly locks. This had to be the third dead end she'd encountered on her journey through these dark chambers. With a swift kick, she sent a couple rocks ricocheting off the wall in front of her. "I swear-"

A threatening hiss sounded from the corner the rocks had plummeted into.

Nancy took three hurried steps back as the illuminated leaf pile in the corner shuffled and flared with alarm. The sound of sizzling and the smell of burning flesh filled the air as a black spiked head jostled into view. However, the filtered stream of light from the hole above scorched and distorted his features.

Nancy took action the moment her mind finally analyzed what was happening. She grabbed hold of the jutting leg of the vampire and hoisted its small body forward into the complete darkness of the cavern. The force from her sudden release of the leg flung her body to the damp floor landing her squarely on her rear. She huffed and puffed steadily to quell her adrenaline filled pulse and wiped the grime from her hands onto the glossy surface of her leather jacket.

"Woah," she breathed, finally craning her neck to study the crumpled steaming form of the vampire lying two scoots away from her. "...You alright kid?" questioned carefully, pulling herself into a stand but still refusing to approach the small child. When she heard no response, not even a groan, she became even more weary. Taking a deep steadying breath she pushed herself forward and leaned down to pull what looked to be the remnants of a black cape, from the boy's face.

A vacant eyed child stared back at her.

She gulped. His face looked even more deathly white than the vampires she had encountered only hours before. "Are you alive-I mean dead? Umm...Are you...there?" she said lamely, feeling foolish even though she was sure the boy couldn't hear her. She swished her hand in front of his face in a final effort.

His eyes followed her movements.

Startled, she withdrew her hand back to her side. "How. can. I. help. you." she spoke slowly.

He rolled his eyes at her.

Nancy snorted in amusement. "Alright, so you can hear me." She smirked down at the child, suddenly less fearful after his very human sarcastic response.

The boys eyes stared blankly back at her.

"Seriously though, how can I help you?" she gazed at him imploringly.

His face underwent some twitching before his small fanged mouth started to open, "Bl-d-d." It mouthed.

That's all the information Nancy needed, she held up a hand to stop his further attempt at speech. "Alright, let's get this straight before we go any further here."

The vampire child's finger twitched.

"I. am. not. a. snack." she pointed to herself proudly. "I'm here to assist the vampire, the ahh..." her fingers caressed her chin in thought. "Bagg-Ville-SackBagg-a-whatever family, so yeah! The answer is no! You cannot eat me!"

The child eyes lit with wonderment and sudden understanding. The Witch!

"So you need blood and you can't get it from me," Nancy giggled nervously and fiddled with the two long bead strands around her neck. "What are we supposed to do?" A thought abruptly occurred to her. "Hey! You should be sleeping! its daylight!" She accused with a finger.

He remained in vampire coma at her questioning and accusations.

"Damn, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting that you can't talk," Nancy scratched the back of her neck as she lazily observed a lizard crawling leisurely along the surface of the cave wall. A thought occurred to her.

Eyes widening, and hurried mumbles slurring from her mouth, the lazy lizard stiffened and plopped softly onto the bed of crunchy leaves lining the floor. She stepped hurriedly over the boy to retrieve it, and brought herself to a kneel at his side, lizard in hand. "Can you drink its blood?" she felt stupid asking, but she really didn't know.

The boys eyes widened and then with a great deal of effort twitched his jaw to open his fanged mouth.

With an understanding wince, she wiggled the scaled creature into the boys mouth and didn't stop until she had impaled its body upon his fangs. At the immediate popping and sucking sounds, her hands quickly flew back down to her sides.

The vampire child's eyes blinked groggily for a moment before he stiffly sat up and faced Nancy.

Nancy's crouch nearly gave at his movements but she held herself steady.

"I believe thanks are in order," he stated rather properly in an adult-like voice.

Nancy blinked. "Sure, you're welcome?"

The boy nodded. Seeming to compose himself before speaking again, "I am called Rudolf, and you are the Magician Nancy my family speaks of?"

Her lips nearly curved into a smile at his terminology. "Yeah, you could say that."

Rudolf's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at her words.

"I'm a Witch, for the record," she clarified, embracing the once hated title.

"For...the record?"

"Sorry," she could just slap herself, she'd been doing so well with the vampires archaic English up to this point. "It's a modern phrase, it means, "For your information."

Rudolf gave another nod of affirmation, letting a wince slip as he tried to push himself to stand.

"Hey," Nancy immediately grabbed hold of his arm and steadied him so that he wouldn't topple back onto the floor. "That's right, what are you doing all the way down here in the first place, shouldn't you be hiding from daylight like the rest of your family?"

Rudolf cringed as he began leading them back through the dark corridors. "Yes," he began to explain. "But last night I began a game of seek and find with my sibling Anna, and I hid in that pile of leaves. Lovely spot, but it was so comfortable, I fell into slumber."

Nancy kept her comments about her own comfort preferences to herself and nodded her understanding.

Rudolf turned them down a winding path and asked a question of his own, "What ever were you doing in that end of our manor?"

After inwardly translating that question, Nancy huffed before responding, "I was looking for a place for me to stay." Taking a tighter hold onto Rudolf's shoulder, she stopped him from slipping from her grasp.

Rudolf turned his head to regard her in question. "Do you not wish to stay with me and my family?"

Nancy shook her head at him in silent amusement, "No, I'm staying, but I have to find the place in this catacomb with the highest concentration of natural magic, so that I can build some better accommodations for myself, you don't expect a mortal to live like a vampire do you?"

Rudolf shook his head slowly in fascination. Rounding his still weak body down the last dark turn, he led Nancy to the sleeping chamber of his family.


	4. Chapter IV

Disclaimer: I still do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises.

Author Note: I LOVE YOU! You know who you are ;D! My couple of story favorites and alert listings haven't gone unnoticed! I sing your praises all the way into the next universe. Seriously. Love. Ya.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Just so that any chickadoodles that read this story know, I have big plans for this plot, this story will be a trilogy covering Pre-Little Vampire plot, Little Vampire Plot, and all the way into Post Little Vampire Plot. So I hope that can give you guys a bit of an idea as to far I'm gonna take this shindig!

- O -

Nancy squinted in awe at the sight of the suspended Vampire family. Their hair and clothing frozen, as if they were still standing next to her upright. She switched her grip to release Rudolf from her helpful grasp and allowed him to hobble forward into the center of the room. Intrigued, her eyes barely blinked as she watched the boy's features minimize into that of a small coffee brown bat.

Bewildered by the sight, her mind went blank.

As she turned to leave the family to their sleeping, she heard the small screeching of the bat behind her. She flipped her view back around to see the full human form of an upside down Rudolf staring back at her. She let a deep breath escape her mouth in surprise.

Rudolf gave her a small closed mouth smile, "I must thank you again, for your help tonight."

Slightly taken aback, she easily recovered. "It was no trouble," she shrugged indifferently. She gave him an impish smile, "Now, _this is _your entire family right?" her eyebrows rose comically. "I'm not going to find anymore surprise Vampires in my further explorations of this crypt am I?"

Rudolf fangs peeked through his lips from his larger smile, "No, I'm afraid the four of us shall be all you will encounter."

Nancy nodded with a satisfied smile, and with that she turned to leave. "Well, have a good nigh-mornings sleep!"

The Vampire child laughed at her remark and at her retreat, finally closed his weary eyes in rest.

- O -

Navigating the way out of the Vampire's sleeping chamber had been simple and as she stood at the forked route Rudolf had led her down she felt the pull of Natural magic in the tunnel opposite it. Feeling along the slimy cave walls in the darkness, she found her way down the corridor. Kicking up pebbles and dust in her wake she found herself, once again, at the end, facing another dead end. This trapped space, however, was teeming with the flow of natural magic.

Extremely pleased with her find, Nancy dropped her satchel and dug through it to retrieve her ten candles. After much fumbling, she grabbed hold of them and placed them in sets of two, doing her best to orient them to the five corners of her body's natural elements. Scrambling around in the darkened end she scratched divots in the cave walls with nothing but her chipped black nail polished fingers. By the end of her troubles, she had set them to perfection. Next, she was gentle to remove her very own golden chalice, and placed it with purpose on the moist ground. Her curved boline knife, gypsy's orb, broken mirror and stone pentacle tablet were soon to follow.

She then grabbed her satchel by its back and emptied all of her collected herbs from the forest onto the floor. With a flourish she placed her hand upon the crunching pile of kindling, "Fires power and fires might, protects me every day and night."

The dead end erupted in a fierce blue light. Nancy's candles now burned with the glow of blue fire.

Feeling warmer, Nancy rubbed her hands together in pleasure before plopping herself down onto the now dry corridor floor and happily stretched her body out to get some well deserved rest of her own.

'This could work,' her mind slurred off as she passed into a more tranquil world.

- O -

Her nose twitched in a loud snore. It was loud enough to wake her crumpled aching form back into consciousness.

Nancy's eyes burned behind her eyelids, but reluctantly, she forced them open from her slumber. Her hand bent upward to try to stifle the loud yawn threatening to bow out from her mouth.

'By the throbbing of my bones, I'd say I must have been out of commission for at least 13 hours,' her mind calculated a guess as she propelled her body into a stand. Taking note of her perfectly burning blue lit candles, she was pleased to find that the cavern had a constant regeneration of natural magic, just as she suspected it would. Extracting that large worry off her chest, she headed out through the tunnel.

She stopped only once and that was to allow her pupils time to adjust to the dimness of the inner caves, before she carried onward to follow the route back into the Vampire's sleeping quarters.

As she turned the last bend, she was shocked to find the family still free hanging from the ceiling above. Each family member still deep within their own personal coma.

"I really did sleep 13 hours," she mumbled stupefied.

With a slight inner satisfaction, she noted that Rudolf's ashen face had lightened back up to the alabaster shade of the rest of his family. Risking only a small glance to the circle of other Vampires around her, Nancy turned back around to retrace her steps back into the catacomb labyrinth.

Deciding to do something more productive with her daylight hours this day, Nancy circled on her heel with the purpose of finding a way back up to the world's surface.

- O -

Her body wriggled humorously as she tried to shimmy her way up from the hole in the ground. Upon her travels through the dark Vampire manor, she soon discovered there was absolutely no orthodox way of getting back up to the surface. There needn't be one either, considering her new found information on the Vampire family. 'Bats, they can really change into fuckin' bats!' she thought with a snarl as she hoisted the length of her body up out of the crevice in the ground. Her legs soon followed, with a swift effort she was standing again, and trotting her way through the illuminated cemetery.

Sunlight swept away all intimidating factors from the funerary grounds. Some of the headstones even glittered with their natural minerals at the touch of the sunlight.

With the small twitch of a smile on her lips, her feet led her into the direction of the long revealed mausoleum she had tried to reach such a short time ago. As her stride inevitably brought her closer, she began to hear the raucous sound of a cough, or hacking, to be more precise. Her body immediately fell into a crouch, and sweat began to bead at her hairline.

She was not alone in the cemetery, and this new inhabitant couldn't be of the Vampire variety.

Her hunched form huddled cautiously from headstone to headstone, until finally she was in position to view the other human in her company. It was a man. A scrawny filthy man capped with a beanie. His face was weathered from years of working outdoors and upon noticing the shovel clutched in his right hand, Nancy had no doubt in her mind as to what his occupation was.

Extremely rattled by his presence, she retreated, quite careful not to upset any foliage, lest the man suddenly become aware of her existence in his graveyard.

A thought struck her however, as her body unwittingly led her back to the Vampire's domain. 'He must live here,' the power and potential of that thought hit her profoundly. 'Food,' her mind practically groveled. Her feet immediately switched course to investigate that potential mausoleum after all.

- O -

The closer she stepped, the more apparent it was that the stone structure was indeed a funeral home. Her stomach growled noisily the closer she came towards the side of the structure. Hands reached out to pull creeping vines of ivy from the face of the window she desired to spy through. Her feet stood in a tip toe as she peeked through the long dejected cloudy window to see the outline of what looked to be a dinner table and adjacent from it, the boxy form of a refrigerator. Her goal in sight, she began furiously searching for a way to open the window. Fingers wrapped carefully around the bottom latch of the window, but to no avail, it only left her digits sore and red. Puffing angrily onto the glass, her hands came up to press anxious palms against the dusty surface. With the surprising slip of her hand, she found that the window actually budged effortlessly. With a slight cackle she grabbed hold of the window sill and threw her body forward onto the rugged interior of the inside.

"Not bad, for a mortuary," she whistled, noting the high vaulted ceilings and the easy home layout. She had no doubt, this man's home would be an invaluable resource to her during her stay in the catacombs. Creaking her way across the boarded floor she stealthily took a plastic bag from the gravedigger's kitchen counter top and raided his fridge in the most discreet way possible. Sacking her loot over her shoulder she quickly parried her way back out the window and made absolute sure to leave the window as she found it, nearly indiscernible with vine overgrowth.

Unable to bear the walk back to the underground on an empty stomach, she took an orange out of her stolen goods. She peeled it happily, all the while humming to her self as she knelt down to let her body drop back down into the hole whence she came.

- O -

The plastic bag crinkled as she set in down in the corner of her blue lit cavern. With a mighty stretch, she heaved a sigh before removing the empty glass jar she had pocketed from the Gravedigger's home. Carefully, she removed one of her still glowing candles and tilted it into the jar so she could precariously gather some of the wet wax.

She repeated this process for hours, until she had successfully collected wax from each of her candles. Just as she dipped a steady finger into the wax for some mixing she heard a familiar voice growl.

"I don't trust you."

With her back to him Nancy ignored him and didn't let her surprise show as she quietly mixed the wax for her final altar candle. She must have been working on this candle longer than she thought for the Vampires to be awake already.

She heard him grumble again, and her spine did that annoying tingling thing is does when she's scared.

His hand hovered over her leather jacketed shoulder and just as he was about to touch her in confrontation the air around him stiffened.

Nancy cracked her knuckles in discomfort and let her magic pollute the air around them. She turned to view the grave face of her first encountered Vampire.

"I wouldn't mess with me if I were you," her voice challenged, but the slight quiver of her bottom lip betrayed her apprehension.

Gregory smirked at the sight, one of his fangs becoming visible.

Nancy swallowed compulsively at the reminder. Her eyes began blinking rapidly to clear her now swimming vision.

"If you betray my family, I won't be merciful," his blue eyes countered her own, staring down at her still kneeling form.

Steadying herself, she reached up to grab hold of the spiked collar necklace at her throat. With a steadying breath she said, "You won't have to worry about that." With that strained admittance, she dismissed the conversation by turning back to her candle wax.

Gregory stared down at her back in confusion. He just didn't know what to make of this Witch. Inwardly deciding to test her patience with him again, he took another step forward.

The reaction was instantaneous. Nancy sprung to her feet and whirled herself around to face him.

The air around him began to feel solid. Gregory's eyes widened.

"Take one more step," Nancy warned. "And this catacomb will be filled with every type of vermin known to man."  
With a hollow laugh she reveled in the surprised look on Gregory's face. "Your corpse body wouldn't stand a chance."

Taken aback by the threat, Gregory forced his body to take a step back, retreating from the tense air of the blue grotto. Upon taking his step back, he noticed a glowing blue circular glyph pattern appearing on the floor. Now that he wasn't touching it, the strained air around him had left.

"Leave me," the Witch demanded angrily. Now that she was in her element surrounded by natural magic, she wasn't going to be bullied by this Vampire boy any longer. She would show him his place. But only when he came to bother her in this corridor of the cave. Anywhere else, and well, she'd be at his mercy. But she wouldn't tell him that.

Surprised and a bit awed at her display of power Gregory withdrew from her company. He couldn't deny the prickling of sudden admiration for the girl, she had often cowered in his company, but she had proven to him for a second time since their meeting, that she did indeed, hold a backbone.

With a satisfied nod, Nancy watched as the Vampire boy and his spotted patterns of black and red dyed tangled locks disappeared from her view. "What a prick," she chuffed out after he had finally departed.

- O -

"...Prick?" Gregory repeated to himself standing at the entrance of Nancy's tunnel. He shook his head in amusement, he vowed he'd have to risk mutilation at her hand sometime again soon to ask her what it meant.

- O -

After Nancy's confrontation with Gregory she found that she was much too shaken to properly finish preparing the final candle in her set. She sat in meditative silence for a while before the built up magic around her settled from its agitated pulsing. Her interactions with the teenage Vampire boy always left her frazzled, but now she even had a magical manifestation of the turmoil his presence caused her.

It was the very thought that the boy could end her life in just one quick movement that unnerved her so. She probably wouldn't even have a full second to comprehend what was happening before death grabbed hold of her.

It was unsettling. Remarkably unsettling. It didn't help matters that all other members of his family had expressed no desire and no inclination whatsoever of causing her any physical harm. They actually seemed to be going out their way to prove otherwise, once she actually thought about. Well, almost all of them, the patriarch seemed pretty cantankerous in her company, but still, she sensed no real threat from his presence.

The magic ebbed at her body in calming waves as she let the thoughts of the meddlesome boy leave her completely. Nerves subsided, Nancy gave thought to what still needed to be done if she was to live with these night dwellers. 'A map of this maze might be helpful,' her mind provided. That didn't sound too bad actually. It might restore some of her dignity if she knew just where she was navigating in this dusty crypt. Her mind made up, she grabbed hold of her stone pentacle tablet.

"Transformation I call to me, Blessed Fire answer my plea. Banish the old and bring in the new, Clear the way for what's healthy and true." The blue flames of her candles flickered with power and her tablet began to glow like the iron of a sword held over a hearth. Her finger gave a testing bit of pressure to the face of the tablet. She smiled at the result, wherever her index finger touched, it left behind a streak of luminous blue lines.

Pleased, she set out into the darkened caverns with the intention of adding some order back into her life.

Her tablet began to lose its blazing glow the further she walked away from the comfort of her natural magic. With great relief she noted that the tablet still functioned to its full capacity. With each step she took she was being mapped and tracked. Catalogued and saved for the next time she happened to be stumbling around these moldy passages. Making a swift turn down a new pathway she marked her tablet accordingly. Distracted by her task, she didn't notice the fluttering of the two bats behind her. Until one of them gave out a shrill screech. Nancy reeled behind her just in time to duck as the two furry mammals dove over her head. As they flew steadily down the corridor, Nancy swore that one of the bats she had spied had been the smaller coffee colored bat of Rudolf. Going out on a limb she started jogging after him. A bit curious as to what he could have been up to. She was sure the child wouldn't mind a bit of her inane questioning. Picking up her pace, she found herself back into the large cavernous main room of the underground crypt. She arrived just in time to see the transformation of one Rudolf, and surprisingly, one Gregory.

Nancy nearly started running away at the realization. She wasn't ready to face the boy again so soon after their little encounter. 'Dumb ass! There were _two_ bats you dimwit,' she winced as the two transformed Vampires turned their attentions in her flabbergasted direction.

"Nancy," she heard the small voice of Rudolf begin.

Her eyes traveled upward to catch his curious expression, and it was then that she noticed the trail of blood trickling down from the corner of his mouth. She felt herself gasp, and unbidden, her eyes traveled to the face of Rudolf's older brother to observe the same phenomenon of ruby red blood falling from his lips. She felt herself begin to panic.

Amusement filled Gregory's face. He was more than happy to have the Witch back into his scaring territory. "You've caught us at a good time," he began with a cruel smile, more blood escaped from his mouth at the gesture. "We've just returned from _feeding,_" he put more emphasis on the word, knowing just which button to push.

Nancy began to seriously consider leaving, 'I've only been here for bit, no one will take it too seriously if I leave. I don't even know if I can really do anythi-'

Rudolf's small boyish voice invaded her inner bout of hysterics. "Stop that Gregory," he lightly scolded his older brother.

Gregory's split eyebrow rose in annoyance.

Nancy's nearly dropped her tablet as Rudolf suddenly progressed towards her.

Rudolf looked at her in sympathy, "Nancy." He spoke with care," You must understand, my family only drinks the blood of animals. We would never harm a mortal."

It took Nancy a full five minutes to comprehend that. When the implications finally dawned on her she felt: relief, irritation, and an intense need to drive a stake through Gregory's ill humored heart. Any fear she'd felt at his presence and any threat she had ever thought he had posed her flew away at Rudolf's confession. 'That bastards going to get it,' she decided, peering over at the bored looking form of the pale boy in the ruined trench coat.

Before she could get a very grateful word out to Rudolf, the imposing forms of Freda and Frederick sashayed into the room.

"Sons," the lordly form of Frederick addressed. "We would like a word with the Witch."

Nancy outwardly scowled at the way he spat the word _Witch_.

Gregory took in Nancy's countenance with extreme amusement, before vacating the room with the small stature of his little brother trailing behind him.

A few moments after the boys departure Freda glided forward to come closer to Nancy. "I trust you have made yourself most comfortable," she spoke with her smile small.

Nancy nodded in confirmation, "Yes, I've found myself a great well of natural magic to utilize." She continued, "After some more settling I should be well on my way into researching your stone." She hoped that she had sounded impressive.

Freda nodded approvingly.

But Frederick did not seem amused. "You mean, you have not already been researching the stone?" he spoke accusingly.

Nancy felt her small bit of courage falter. "Well," she gulped, she would never forgive herself if she stuttered in front of Frederick. "It takes time to get the most proper and accurate magic results." At the look of his raised eyebrow, she continued, "Magic is a thing of rituals, and I am nothing if not a thorough Witch," she fluttered around in what she hoped looked like confidence. "See, my pentacle tablet has yet to orient itself," she lied easily giving Frederick the equivalent of a blue glowing light show.

Frederick breathed deeply through his nose, and gave Nancy a look of regard. "Understood."

Nancy almost allowed herself to breath.

"But make no mistake, if I see a show of lack in your progress," Frederick gave her a look from down his nose. "Do not think I am above allowing you to return to the wandering from whence you came."

Rattled to her core, Nancy nodded numbly. Watching in relief as the impressive couple left her to her musings. She almost missed the sympathetic look Freda had sent her way.

Before she could collapse into absolute despair the dainty figure of Anna came skipping into the room. Nancy straightened herself back up to her full height at the child's abrupt appearance.

"Dearest Nancy!" Anna looked even more cheerful than Nancy thought possible.

"Anna," Nancy regarded her with a broken smile.

Anna gasped in dramatics. "What ever is the matter Nancy?" Anna drew herself up closer to Nancy and easily took hold of her empty hand.

Nancy smiled down at Anna in a bit of appreciation. "It's nothing Anna, I'm just tired is all."

"Well," Anna puffed. "We must get you straight to bed then."

Anna began tugging her back through the dark corridors and Nancy numbly let her. Her mind and body were shot with all the happenings the day had held for her.

"Here we are Nancy," Anna said happily, proud of herself for knowing where Nancy's room was even though she had never been told it's location. She had happened upon it the night before, drawn to it by the blue lights Nancy's candles illuminated.

Nancy looked down at Anna in gratitude, she even went out of her way to crouch down and pat the girls pale tresses.

Anna looked at Nancy in absolute admiration.

Nancy graced Anna with a small genuine smile, and as Nancy stood back up to retreat into her tunnel, Anna's tiny cold hand stopped her. She looked down at the chipper girl in confusion. The child looked nervous.

"Nancy," she began. "MayItellyouabedtimestory?" she asked quickly.

Nancy could do nothing but blink.

Anna giggled at herself before repeating, "May I tell you a bed time story?"

Nancy digested the question before she burst out laughing at the absurdity of it. Literally, no one in her life had ever asked her that question, and now, at the age of nineteen, a child was asking her if she wanted to hear a bed time story? Nancy shook her head and smiled largely. "Yes, Anna. I would like that very much."

"Oh good!" she gushed. "My family has heard ALL of my bedtime stories, but you haven't heard any so I'm ver-"

Nancy's tired mind stopped listening as she led Anna to her room with a large satisfied smile on her face.

- O -

"There once was a handsome tortured prince who longed for his true love..."

"But his true love, however..."

"Could tragically, only be see by the radiant glow of the moon on the chrysanthemum flowers at night..."

"The Prince worried and toiled over his unfavorable predicament, until one fateful night..."

"A Witch came to his castle!" Anna looked excitedly over at the passed out form of Nancy.

"She promised the Prince that if he should drink from her enchanted vial..."

"He would posses the glow of the Moon's favorite star..." Anna trailed off.

She chose to end her bed time story there.

Ultimately deciding to omit the entire last half of the story, due in great part to the Witch's betrayal of the handsome Prince.


	5. Chapter V

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises. Damn & Damn.

Author Note: Sorry if last chapter seemed to be a bit of a filler, I promise that all details will be relevant to the plot, you just have to give them time ;D! Love you darlings out there, and please review if you can spare the time =)!

LANGUAGE WARNING: Quite a few F-bombs get dropped in this chapter, just a warning.

- O -

Feeling the benefits of a solid sleep cycle, Nancy stretched her cramped muscles and shook her sleeping limbs with a smile. The crypt didn't seem so dusty and the blue from her candles wasn't giving her a headache. Alright optimism. Let's do this.

She hunched herself forward from the ground and crouched in front her gypsy's orb. "In thy hands of mine fire and i will intertwine on this day i cast this spell i shall bend fire and mend it with thy say," she spoke lazily from practice. With uncommonly precise movements she leaned forward to touch the very tips of her fingers to the impossibly smooth surface of the crystal. She felt her mind lunge and panic slightly before granting the crystal access to open up her own personal universe to the greater seeing orb that she beheld. There was no other choice at this point, she had an immortal changing all powerful stone to find. ASAP. That or big old windows peak was going to throw her back out to her fate worse than death scenario. Nancy felt her mind begin to grow jaded from the constant bash of images her brain was being bombarded with, but she trucked on. There was determination flowing through her veins. She was going to find out at least one useful tidbit about this stone or her name wasn't Nancy Melbourne Ulrich.

A vein protruded from her forehead at the intense concentration she was undergoing. Her eyes squinted tightly shut at the slight pulling sensation she began to feel.

It was working.

The image of a crimson glittering jewel fell into her mind and kept slipping in through the corners of her consciousness. Elated, she almost broke her concentration. 'Time to reel that sucker in!' She continued to feel the flashes of the image behind her eyelids until finally the stone flickered in as it solidified into one solid picture.

Dread filled her stomach. "No," she practically begged. "No, no, no, no, no!" she wanted to beat her hands into everything and anything. The stone's image behind her eyelids quivered as it began to attenuate. A hoard of sticky feather legged cockroaches materialized in its place.

They flooded her mind and hissed into her ears. It felt as if they were inside her head and they were attempting to crawl out through all the orifices of her skull. Her throat constricted in a shriek, and she felt her body flail around madly. Just as she began clawing at her own hair in desperation the hissing roaches vanished. Her skin tingled and her face blazed in terror. Warm tears streamed down her round cheeks in messy rows. The gypsy seeing orb rolled from her grasp and glided over to collide into one of the protruding rocky reliefs of the wall.

That had to have been the WORST orb interference she had EVER experienced. She panted as sobs escaped from her suffocating raw throat. "Holy...Fuck!" she was exhausted. So much for a bright and productive day. She had heard of such horrid visions and jinx's cast out from a seeing orb, but she had never imagined she would be subject to one. Her body was throbbing in adrenaline and icy fear, she needed to get out of the dark dankness of the catacombs, if only for a moment.

- O -

Her head popped happily up to the surface. Greedily gasping in the fresh air, she clawed at the grass until the rest of her body emerged from the narrow crevice. She felt as if every nerve inside of her was buzzing. Paranoid, her eyes scanned the earth for bugs before she cautiously sat herself in front of a nearby tree. Twitchy and anxious, she rubbed her own arms up and down to try and calm herself.

The sun was descending in the sky.

Nancy's jittering mind began to ponder just how many days its been since her life had become dominated by the creatures of the night. Her half lidded eyes gazed into the blazing red crest in the sky. It didn't matter, she decided. This graveyard lifestyle suited her just fine.

- O -

"Jack?" a petite young woman called out.

The man in question perked his head up from the hunched position he had assumed on the ground. His head craned curiously in the woman's direction.

She gave him a look.

He took in a quick intake of breath, and hastily stood to approach her.

"Look," she spoke, pointing down to the side of a fallen tree in their path.

The man spared a calculating eye to dissect the woodland debris for the clue that his partner had so obviously located. His face fell open in surprise.

A Tympane mushroom. Of course the mutts couldn't find her. With that mushroom's pheromones polluting the air it's a wonder that they even tracked her into the woods at all. His eyes narrowed.

"This is serious," he gave the woman a look.

She nodded in confirmation.

He removed the cellphone from his pocket.

- O -

After the sun had shot its last dying rays, Nancy decided to return back to the underground. Her energy spent, she had half a mind just to go back to sleep, but that would solve nothing. Thinking about turning back up to Frederick completely empty handed again gave her that little extra push she needed to keep herself conscious. She really couldn't afford to disappoint that man. He held her life in a delicate balance.

The thought of leaving paralyzed her.

It was funny just how important it had become to her to stay with these bloodsuckers. She was comfortable. She felt settled in. There was a place she could gather food, a place to sleep, and the reassurance that they wouldn't bite her (That played a bigger part in her feeling of comfort than she'd care to admit). Another large bonus, that she could reap the benefits of, was that if she could come up with some helpful results for this family and their stone, she'd bet that they'd be more than willing to fight for her, if it came down to it.

A bit selfish, but meh. She was counting on it. You scratch my back, I scratch yours sort of deal. She needed these Vampires to scratch her back. Desperately.

Shaking her head of her wayward thoughts she gave another look to the concave blue glowing depression she had been occupying. Nancy reached up to fiddle with her cross shaped earrings. She was contemplating her options. If she couldn't use her gypsy orb, just what was she going to do?

It occurred to her as her eyes trailed down across the glyph she had created just the other day when her Vampire boy nemesis tried to provoke her. She would create a summons pentagram. That way she would be dealing with a more stable ancient magic. It would require a great deal more concentration, but she believed she could successfully perform it with maybe only minimal bloopers this time. She hoped at least. Another jinx like the one she experienced earlier and she could lose her mind altogether.

But she was willing to take the risk.

With a shaking hand she unlaced her boots one by one and carefully placed them to the side. Next she unfurled her socks into wads and stuffed them down into her shoe soles, her pale toes wiggled at her in their sudden freedom. The sandy dirt of the floor seeped in between her digits and coated the bottoms of her feet in dark grime. "Alright," she prepped herself. "This Well of Fire brings desires, the smoke will take my Magick higher. Grant to me that which I seek, That Will and Wish at last shall meet. Willed with Passion, Wished with Care, Send my spell now through the Air. Now I name the need so dire, Now I feed it to the fire. By the power of three times three, As I will it, so shall it be."

Nancy's face splitting grin appeared. She loved this spell.

Her feet began to levitate a good five centimeters off the ground. With utmost patience she worked her body forward so that she could touch the ground with only the tip of her finger while the rest of her body lay suspended. The back of her neck broke out into the sweats. It took a lot of her power to perform this high level spell, even more so after her little hex encounter just that very afternoon. She tried to exude the utmost confidence, but faltered slightly when she felt her body's magic reach the very, proverbial, end of its rope. With a slight dip down to the floor she found herself now supported entirely by the natural magic of the tavern. A few centimeters lower to the ground than she anticipated, she found that she now had to use the strength of her arms so that her elbows and knees didn't drag onto the floor.

With a dramatic puff, she blew her unruly black curls from her face. 'Alright, minor setback,' she tried reassuring herself so that she didn't dismay. Reaching forward with a trembling finger she began to draw the intricate undisturbed designs that this mother of all pentagrams needed.

After a good long hour of work she began to notice her candles flickering in warning. She needed to take a break. If she didn't, she would very soon be, quite literally, colliding into all of her efforts. With the last of the magic the cave would allow her to muster she glided herself a good foot away from her work before she permitted her body to meet the ground. With an abrupt '_oompf' _she found the front of herself sticky and wet from the residue of the magic-less cave floor. Lacking the strength to move her sore limbs, she conceded to keep herself there. That is, until she heard his damn voice again.

"You seem to have chosen a most peculiar place to nap," he spoke jeeringly, an amused twinkle sparkling off in his eye.

"What can I say, I _love_ puddles," Nancy rolled her eyes with a snort.

Gregory's eye twitched at the offending sound.

She placed all of her willpower into flipping her body over just so she could see the boys expression. If she was going to start her games, she'd be damned if she couldn't relish in her victories. With an unintentional groan she hoisted her lethargic body upward into a sitting position. She was not going to show weakness. She was done with that shit. Her eyebrows wiggled suggestively at the confused look he was sending her.

The boy reacted as if he had been struck. What was this girl's strange behavior?

Oh yes. This was going to be fun. That was a much better reaction than she could have ever anticipated. 'The element of surprise is mine,' her mind purred. Pushing her limits that much farther she began to propel her body into a stand. Her bones creaked in protest but she shushed them into submission. This was more important.

The Vampire boy's sallow bewildered face took in her struggling form. What on this earth had she been up to? She could barely stand up. Before he could inquire, she had regained her balance and was waltzing straight towards him. He had no choice but to back up from, what was becoming, her forced proximity.

"You're not so scary after all," she said, flicking one of his liberty spikes. With that helpful little tip from Rudolf about his family's lack of a Homosapien blood diet she was feeling confident and vengeful. That's for making me feel like a strawberry Kool Aid pack you jerk!

"Did you want to bet on that?" he scowled deeply. Doing his best to avoid her fingers assault on his spiked head.

"You wouldn't hurt me!" she laughed her gasping laugh, exhaustion making her into quite the cocky little bitch. "Your family needs me," she smiled coyly, boldly reaching up to play with a lapel on his trench coat.

Gregory boiled.

Time for the big guns. The ones that hit you right in the pride. "...Puffed up pussy cat!" Nancy snickered loudly before filling her cheeks up with air and bugging her eyes out.

That was it. Gregory snapped. His hand bolted out to grab hold of her offending cheeks.

She was almost frightened shit-less. _Almost_. The air rushed out of her mouth in a loud '_pftttt!_'

Nancy blinked in surprise, and then immediately exploded with her wheezing laughter.

Gregory's hand withdrew. His face twitched.

As Nancy cackled, she felt the tension and stress of her troubles all drifting away, dissipating into the atmosphere. Damn did she need a good laugh. With absolute surprise she even thought she caught the sight of a small blink of Gregory's mouth. A smile? She widely opened her eyes to observe him.

Noticing her scrutiny he huffed before crossing his arms at her, revealing a dead pan stare.

No. She thought with a shake of her head, a broad smile still stretched across her face. I definitely imagined it. That sour apple only smirks. Her hand ran through her short messy hair.

Gregory followed the movement with his eyes. "I'll leave you to your insanity then," he spoke suddenly.

Nancy turned her head back to him. She grinned crazily, "I'd like that."

Gregory shook his head and coughed.

Nancy figured that was the closet thing to a genuine laugh she was going to get out of him. She softened her crazy smile into something more sincere.

He acknowledged her with a nod before retreating back into the shadows of the cave.

Nancy felt refreshed. What a surprise. That had been truly fun. Now that abject terror had been removed from the equation she wasn't so sure she minded the brooding boy's presence. 'I mean, don't get me wrong, the boy has a tree trunk up his ass.' But he could be a source of some amusement. Turning on her heel she began whistling a small tune to herself. She had forgotten about her body's dilemma. Her foot twisted harshly before she careened gracelessly to the moist floor. "Fuck!" she snarled, tilling uselessly at the ground with her fingers. Her anger, however, dispersed far quicker than she could comprehend and laughter filled her throat instead.

"Man...I'm pathetic."

But boy was she suddenly in a good mood.

- O -

With a crack of her knuckles she positioned her hands back into a prayer pose. Time to finish this. New found fresh energy flowed through her veins as she once more made herself levitate above the ground. Her fingers made quick work of the second half of the perfect semi-circle she still needed to complete and she found that she was finished much earlier than she initially anticipated. 'Man, I should annoy that grungey boy more often,' she thought with a satisfied grin. This power, maybe this was how he had felt when he was trying to scare her?

Huh. Oh well. It was much more fun for her this way.

With a small dip of her magic she positioned her naked feet firmly onto the center of the large circle. "Now," she sighed in anticipation. The air stiffened around her and she felt her body quickly become statuesque. "I call on day and night, To start an element fight. Cause the burning ash to come, Start a fire, not a lot but some. Elemental war, bring me on, do not involve people, or you will resolve, bring the element to me, nearest you can go. Let the fire start, as the energy drops, then goes." Her candles blew and shook as if a harsh wind was playing with their flames.

Nancy periodically took in large gulps of oxygen to keep her body from asphyxiating.

The magic crackled and whispered around her. In a swift swell of sorcery, all of the candles were extinguished and the solid figure of an ancient image danced behind her eyelids.

The spell had been successful.

But her results were less than favorable. These Vampires were searching for the Stone of Attamon. The _fucking_ stone of _Attamon_. Really? They couldn't have told her that. That chunk of rock was notorious. She was searching for the equivalent of the Philosophers Stone. She wouldn't be surprised if the two stupid pebbles were completely synonymous. One and the same, divided by history.

Damn, was this a dangerous agreement. She really should have gotten her facts straight before she all but volunteered herself to stay here. But she very well couldn't back down now. She wouldn't allow herself to.

"Nancy dear," she heard the beckoning of Freda's echoing voice.

"Uh, yes?" she returned, butchering her usual proper politeness. She had been caught off her guard. With a shuffle of her bare foot she swept the evidence of her pentagram from the murky floor, and with a quick mutter and swish of her hand the blue of her candles blazed back into existence.

Freda's curly pom-pom head appeared suddenly from the darkness.

Startled, Nancy had to stop herself from recoiling.

"I felt the draw of a great force, just a few minutes past," Freda looked to Nancy curiously. "Have you made some progress?"

Nancy wanted to scream at that question, but held herself calm. "Yes, actually."

Freda nodded in approval. Then she gave her a grand waving hand gesture.

It took Nancy's mind a full second to process what that meant. She stuttered up a response, "W-Well, I've just called upon a great summoning."

Freda inhaled an impressed breath.

Encouraged Nancy continued, "It's given me well..."

The older woman's face flashed with concern.

Nancy had to ask. She had to be sure. "You're looking for the Stone of Attamon," Nancy shot Freda a look. "Aren't you?"

Freda's face lit up in a tight lipped delighted smile. "Why yes, It is the Stone of Attamon we seek."

Fuck. Nancy returned her smile with a large grimace. "Lovely, I'll be concentrating my efforts on researching the comet then."

Freda looked extremely pleased. "That would be grand."

Somehow placated by their clipped conversion, Nancy watched as the grandiose woman gave her a quick nod and flounced away from her, disappearing into the shadows of the tunnel.

Nancy's mind went into overdrive. That stone was horribly cursed. It's no wonder she got jinxed by her gypsy orb. Her Witch blood was wailing in warning. She had to be careful.

Once again she found herself borrowing the natural magic of her grotto. Her candles immediately flickered off from the small absorption of magic she was calling upon. She would have to use the very last of the natural magic that the cave could produce for this day. She sat cross legged in the darkness. These last two spells had to count.

"The immortal fire will always shine. Fire of the sun I shall make you mine. Protection is now my desire. Make the flames now more brighter. Burn away my misery and fear. All evil shall vanish and disappear. Light and warmth shall protect me. One, two, three, so mote it be." An explosion of red warm light burst from the ground below her. Her body wavered and her sitting form nearly fell forward in exhaustion.

Inhaling deeply, she began her second round.

''Father Sun, protect my back. Keep me safe from all attack, Be it visible or unseen, I ask you now to intervene. With all your magic and your power, Protect me now from where you tower. Secure me with your rays of gold. Wrap me in your arms and hold Me tightly until danger's spent, And I am free of ill intent. Father Sun, now hear my plea. As I will, so mote it be.'' This time, a fierce yellow hue engulfed the walls around her. The cave glowed for a moment, appearing to pulse, before returning to its regular greyish tone.

Spent, Nancy felt herself collapse face first onto the floor. She cringed in slight pain. Then looked at the ground in sympathy, "We really have to stop meeting like this."


	6. Chapter VI

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises.

Author Note: I hope some of ya'll out there are enjoying this story :D! And if you haven't caught on yet to the origins of Nancy's character, she's borrowed from a movie titled The Craft, and she's created around Fairuza Balk's Nancy in that movie. I borrow some stuff from that universe but her personality and many other aspects of her story have been changed so that's why I don't consider it a crossover. But yup! Just thought I'd include that little snipet in case anyone was curious.

- O -

The shattered splinters of the mirror beamed her scattered reflection back at her. With some mighty frustration, Nancy scooted herself closer to the cracks in order to properly apply the dark gunk equally to each of her eyelids. Anna swirled around her in wonderment at the spectacle she was making.

"Why do you do such a thing?" she asked in childish curiosity.

Nancy gave a shrug and didn't stop her face painting. "I don't know, it just sort of became a habit after I turned fourteen."

Anna blinked wildly at that admittance. "Oh my! Will I begin the same odd rituals when I reach the age of fourteen?" she began to worriedly grasp at her pale hair.

Nancy loudly laughed at Anna's plight. "Anna, if I may be so bold; aren't you well over the age of fourteen?"

Anna stopped her hair tugging to consider that.

"Oh goodness, you're right, what ever shall I do?"

Nancy gave a snort. "Nothing, you're fine just the way you are."

The child still looked troubled. "But-But I must be like that of a normal mortal child, I'll want to be able to fit in once you locate the stone and we become human once more."

Nancy's reflection winced back at her. 'That's right, I've got to find this stone. Dangerous or not. Little Anna's counting on me.' Nancy forced a grin down to the fitful girl, "Anna, you will encounter _no problems, _I assure you."

Anna looked back up at Nancy in absolute belief. "If the great Nancy says it's so, then it must be." She nodded to herself happily.

Nancy rolled her eyes at the great praise, long finished applying her dark eyeliner and moving forward to choose a lipstick color for the day. She turned to regard Anna once more. "What do you think, black or red?" She held the two options out for scrutiny.

Anna looked baffled. "For what?"

"Lipstick of course."

Anna's face gave no show of recognition.

Nancy laughed. "Here, I'll show you," ultimately favoring the deep red colored stick. Nancy smacked her lips, satisfied with her look. She looked to the child for approval.

The young girl gave a shrill squeal. "How fascinating!"

Nancy chuckled to herself and regarded her appearance with some feeling of achievement.

"Nancy you are positively romantic," Anna gushed. "I heartily disagree with Gregory's harsh opinion of you!"

The Witch quirked her brow in complete curiosity. "Harsh opinion?"

"Yes," Anna bobbed her head in agreement. "Just yesterday I overhead him tell my mother, quite brutishly, what an absolute oddity you are."

Nancy smirked. "Yeah well, he should speak for himself."

Anna giggled in agreement. "Indeed, Gregory is an older brother of most peculiar qualities."

Nancy nodded in wholehearted accordance. Before Nancy could comment on his strange outward list of attributes, Anna continued.

"But he is a good brother. Mother says Gregory's done well for the plight that he's been given."

The Witch perked up at this news. Her curiosity peaked. She knelt down to the child's level. Boy did she feel like a gossiping old woman.

Anna looked Nancy in the eye. "I have always overhead Mother say that to be trapped eternally in the stages of puberty is a fate she would not wish upon her worst enemy."

Nancy attempted to hold her composure at Anna's very serious admittance. But lost her control and laughed quite boisterously in the girl's face.

A look of confusion filled Anna's face.

Nancy calmed herself, for Anna's sake. "It's true Anna, I agree with your Mother."

"Then why do you laugh?" Anna's head tilted to the side.

"Well," she started. "You'll understand when you get there yourself someday." She gave the Vampire child a slow smile.

Anna suddenly gave a shudder. "I'm not so certain I want to."

The two females erupted into a fit of giggles. As the two girls laughing hysteria neared its end, Nancy stood back up to her full height.

She gave a small inhalation to calm herself before smiling widely down at Anna.

Anna returned the gesture.

"Speaking of your Mother, have you seen her around this evening?" Nancy inquired, intending to investigate some personal business.

Anna gave a slow shake of her head, "I'm afraid not, I last saw her with my brother Rudolf, but its been many hours past." She sent a look of sincere apology to Nancy.

Nancy shook her head, brushing off the news. "That's alright," she spoke confidently. "I'll find her." She pat the child squarely on her flaxen blonde head. A devious smile lit her features. "You're welcome to stay in my room while I'm gone?" she offered, knowing the bright eyed child would never refuse such an opportunity.

As predicted, Anna gave a wide eyed ecstatic nod.

The Witch gave a small cackle as she strode down the corridor past the starry eyed little girl, all the while chanting a few fun spells under her breath for Anna to enjoy in her absence.

- O -

Traipsing from corridor to corridor Nancy eventually found herself in a small but cavernous pathway. Following the muffled speech she had been tracking. She distinctly heard the familiar sound of Freda's grand voice bouncing off the ceiling. As she neared the end of her pathway she found herself squeezing through a tight crevice in order to pass into the room Freda was inhabiting. Pebbles cascaded down the sides of her person and her sputtering dusty form emerged to find a scene of the tall form of Freda and the more garish form of Gregory staring back at her.

"Woah, hey there," she tweeted nervously into the silence of the stares she was receiving. Her body was covered in a film of dark grey dust and filth.

Gregory stared blankly back at her ridiculous figure.

Freda gave her a large tense smile. "What brings you to us now Nancy?" Politely ignoring Nancy's suddenly pauper looking appearance.

Nancy fiddled with the beads at her throat, suddenly feeling nervous in the woman's company. How was she supposed to ask this? "Well, to be frank, I came to ask a favor."

Freda looked intrigued.

While Gregory appeared to cross his arms in indifference.

Nancy cleared her throat in discomfort. "You see, it appears I've lost my athame." At the lack of understanding in Freda's eyes, Nancy clarified. "It's a ritualistic dagger, I always keep it on my person."

Freda breathed deeply out of her nostrils.

The Vampire boy's face sparked in remembrance. The little Witch had threatened to stake him with that particular belonging of hers. He knew exactly where it still lay in the grass above.

"That sounds a bit dangerous for a young lady to carry," Freda's face shone with disapproval.

Nancy began to panic. She needed that dagger. She had been searching restlessly on the above ground for it for days now. There had to be a way to get Freda's help. "Umm, it's quite harmless." She lied blatantly.

Gregory's eyes narrowed.

"I need it to help me call forth more information on the comet of Attamon." She hoped she was being convincing. From the looks of it, Gregory certainly wasn't buying it.

Freda seemed to consider this for a few moments before turning her head to regard Gregory. "Gregory dearest," she acknowledged. "Would you be so kind as to help Ms. Nancy find her artifact?"

Nancy held her breath as the snarling boy suspiciously eyed her. 'Why the _fuck _did I have to go and tease him the other day!'

He opened his mouth to speak.

She gave him a nervous pleading grin.

His mouth closed.

Curiosity outweighing his suspicion. He nodded to his mother in affirmation.

She nodded back to him and gestured towards Nancy. Unnoticed by his mother, his eyes rolled before he very brusquely bumped into Nancy's shoulder on his way past her.

Nancy gave a mighty huff before looking to Freda in confusion.

"He will lead you," Freda stated simply.

She gave a quick startled nod before stalking after the grumpy Vampire boy.

- O -

Nancy soon found herself barreling after the Vampire menace. He was not going to make this easy for her, was he? She skidded her elbow painfully on a jutting rock as she made a sharp left turn to keep up with him. "Ahhh," she hissed, stopping to inspect the damage. "Jiminy cricket!" the childish curse slipped from her mouth.

A few feet in front of her, a few rocks tumbled to the floor of the cave.

The view of combat boots appeared at her vision of the ground. Her eyes rose to the dirty yellow and black stripes of his shirt and remained. She refused to look the jerk in his face.

"You're pitiful," she heard him sneer at her.

Nancy tried very hard to keep her face absent of agitation.

His irritation grew at her lack of defense. "Why do you not use your magic? Are you so pathetic?"

Nancy tilted her head to inspect the dripping cave walls at that comment.

Gregory felt the pressure of his pride being stepped on.

"That's not how magic works," she spoke before he lost control.

He not so patiently waited for her to continue.

She flashed her blue eyes to his irate face for a moment. "I can't just use it at my will. It's sort of a...well...it's like a karma thing." She gestured in a circular motion with her free hand, her other still cradling her scraped elbow.

Gregory didn't understand, but he pretended to. He bobbed his head once.

Nancy exhaled loudly. With some amusement, she noticed that she could see her own breath. "Are you really going to take me to find my dagger?"

The Vampire boy gave her a look of mistrust. "Are _you_ going to tell me what you truly need it for?"

'Ooooooh, I should have expected that,' she thought with a shake of her head. She smiled widely at him. "To tell you the truth," she lowered her voice and leaned her body just a bit closer to his taller one. "I don't really need it for anything."

The barest hint of a smile twitched at Gregory's mouth, but he repressed it. Instead choosing to lift a quizzical eyebrow.

Nancy chuckled humorlessly. "I just like to have it near me."

Gregory shot her a look.

She cleared her throat, "For protection, and...it's a...family heirloom...actually." She swallowed rapidly at that reluctant admittance.

Gregory considered her for a moment. Sensing no obvious deceit in her reasoning, he turned to stride the rest of the way out of the tunnel.

Nancy watched his back sorrowfully.

"Hurry," he clipped. "I don't have all night."

Nancy shook her head in relieved disbelief.

- O -

Nancy winced as she hoisted her body up to the surface. She lay in the earth motionless for a few minutes to regain her muscle strength, before pushing herself to stand upright at Gregory's side. Her hand immediately went to grab hold of her injured elbow.

Gregory eyed her form cautiously before lifting his feet and leading the way through the graveyard.

Nancy easily kept up with his slower strides and weaved comfortably with him through the various headstones in their path. Their legs kicked up the billowing grey mist as they navigated past a rather crooked looking tree stump.

Nancy gasped aloud when she spied the ivy encased gate she had hopped.

Gregory ignored her enthusiasm and strode his way down from the top of the hill. The moon gleamed overhead as Nancy's smaller figure jolted after him.

Her feet worked hard to keep herself upright as she slid down the muddy hillside. With a loud '_slosh'_ she had made it. Rejoicing at her sudden grace, she hurried herself forward to keep up with Gregory.

She nearly collided with the undead boy in her haste, at his sudden halt, but caught herself a few inches from his back. She took an eager step backwards.

"It's here," she heard him grumble, before he took a step to the side to allow her to see the object at his foot.

With a grateful gasp, she fell to her knees and fondled her much missed shining silver blade.

Gregory watched her warily.

Her black curls shook as she turned her head to him. "Thank you."

She looked so sincere. Gregory was surprised. "Don't thank me."

Her hands lowered the small knife to her lap. "...Why not?" she asked, suddenly felling snotty, his brusque attitude was really starting to put her on edge.

Gregory's face twitched in annoyance.

"I would have killed you here," he said easily.

Nancy's face filled with shock. Her fists tightened into balls. She felt the tickle of anger starting to blaze, "Cut that shit out, Rudolf told me your family doesn't kill humans!"

"...Not normally no, we've stopped," he paused to bend down to her eye level. "_But sometimes that doesn't stop me_," his mouth smirked cruelly at her.

Nancy gulped rapidly. Her gut instinct to fear him coming back full throttle. Her fingers squeezed the dagger.

Satisfied. Gregory's blue eyes trailed from her face to her left ear. His face snarled. "If you had not been wearin' those _bloody_ earrings that night, I would have drained your body of life."

Nancy's white knuckled hand rose to grab hold of one of the offending dangling cross shaped earrings. She had wondered about that flesh burning smell. It had all happened so fast, she had no idea a pair of earrings had actually saved her miserable life that night. She wanted to laugh at the insanity of it. Without realizing it, Nancy began to laugh nervously.

Gregory's face shone with confusion.

Her face dipped down to the ground and her body shook with more of the strange laughter. She caught the sound of Gregory's shoe taking a step away from her. She smirked.

Her body finally ceasing its convulsing. She turned her face back up, and brought her gaze directly into Gregory's pupils. "Do you even _want_ to become human?"

The Vampire boy was shocked by her forwardness. She just wouldn't ever react as he would expect her to. That's probably what unnerved him the most about her.

He paused a moment to observe her crouched figure. "No. I do not mind being a Vampire," he admitted to her with a shrug.

Nancy's defensive posture loosened. She considered his lax features for a while before she nodded. "...I suppose that's fair," she said at last. She could comfort in the fact that Gregory hadn't actually killed her that night and that he would probably refrain from doing so since she had dealings with his family. But that still didn't stop her from sort of freaking out about it.

She'd put on a brave face, she wouldn't let this information give him power over her.

Gregory eyed the rapidly changing facial expressions on Nancy's face with a great deal of fascination. "Come on," he ultimately decided to interrupt her. "I must return."

A bit startled, Nancy jerkily nodded her head before again following the boy's lithe body through the misty graveyard.

- O -

As Nancy's body slid back down through the rabbit hole after Gregory she heard the boom of echoing voices. Infinitely curious, she stalked her way towards the chatter and hid her frame in a nearby alcove, once she was at a proper eavesdropping distance. She listened in mischief as the family greeted Gregory upon his return.

"Gregory dearest," Freda moved to embrace her eldest.

Gregory jerked his body back at the unanticipated gesture. "Mother what are yo-"

She smothered his form in her large gown. "Thank the heavens you are unharmed."

He blinked at this news. "Did something happen?" he demanded as his mother withdrew from her clutch on him.

She shook her head solemnly and looked to the side.

Gregory's eyes followed her trial to the sight of his father's dark form sprawled across the floor. His eyes widened in disbelief, he took in the crumpled figures of a weeping Anna and somber Rudolf at his father's arms.

"Who did this?" he seethed.

Rudolf answered him, "It was Rookery."

"Rookery," Gregory repeated. He felt himself freeze. He needed to calm himself before he rushed out to drain the wretched man's throat.

Freda placed a firm hand on her boy's shoulder. "He will survive, Gregory," she assured him, attempting to ease some of her firecracker son's rage. "Go to him."

Gregory numbly joined Anna and Rudolf on the floor.

Frederick weakly regarded him. "Son, you have returned."

Gregory could do nothing but nod.

"All of my children are well then," he looked satisfied, and allowed his head to drop to the floor.

"How did this happen?" Gregory commanded stiffly.

Frederick glanced warily at his son's pained face, "Rookery has a most powerful new ally, they've provided him with enhanced equipment." Frederick's eyebrows sank in contemplation. "I was no match."

After a moment of silence he continued.

"I spied him speaking to a man and a woman, wearing what appeared to be long white coats, they were most peculiar."

Nancy's heart rose up into her throat. She literally couldn't breathe. They were closer than she initially thought. Feeling the burn of pained gasps trying to escape from her throat, she forced her body to hobble back to her cavern.

- O -

Collapsing to the blue glow of the floor, her body lolled effortlessly into the fetal position. Having absolutely no sense of control over her emotions and feeling the pulsing agitated push of the magic around her she fell quickly into hiccuping sobs. Her body curled ever more tightly in on itself as her wailing reached its peak and she felt herself shriek. In complete reflex, she almost lashed out to strike the hand that had touched her back.

Her red face took in the concerned looking child Vampire.

"R-Rudolf," her breath hitched. Absolute vulnerability ruling her senses she thoughtlessly grasped forward to envelop the child.

His eyes widened at her near choking pressure on his body but didn't move nor make a sound to stop her.

She knew she was drenching his lavish Victorian clothing in her snotty crying. But she just couldn't make herself stop. She was hysterical.

Rudolf tried to remain unperturbed at her behavior but couldn't stop the prickling sense of discomfort in his belly. His small hand lifted from his side to pat the unstable girl on the back.

He had heard her howling cries on his way back to his sleeping quarters, unlike the rest of his family, he had chosen to get some much needed rest while they tended to his father's needs. There just wasn't much he knew that would help his father at this point. He had already risked the night out to feed, and he sure wasn't heading out there again with a powered up Rookery on the loose was such a grand idea. Now, on his way to get some rest he happened upon an emotional Nancy. Just what devilry was amok this night?

Nancy whimpered as her grip loosened a fraction from Rudolf's middle. "I'm so sorry," she croaked. Over and over again she repeated those words.

While Rudolf did his best to hush her and comfort her crumbling form.

Gregory pushed himself up off the wall he was leaning against. The blue glow cast a ghastly grey shade against his skin. He had seen enough.

Was the Witch somehow connected to what had happened to his father?

A few pebbles overturned at his departure.


	7. Chapter VII

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises. *Kicks and screams on the floor*

Author Note: I received my first review YAHOO~! Thank you oh nameless one! Your contribution fuels my creative fires!

- O -

"Fire burning day and night give me warmth and give me light." Nancy's hand blazed with burning blue light as she placed it over her raw elbow. She cringed, observing how the flames licked around her forearm and caused her skin to raise and scab over. The magic swelled away from her, and she reached out a tentative hand to feel along the now bumpy surface of her elbow.

Exhaling a relieved breath of air at her wound finally being tended to, she looked around her glowing grotto with a pinched face.

Memories of last night flew by her eyes. Rudolf had been more than generous. The oblivious child hadn't even asked her a single question about her behavior. He had sat with her in silence and patted her back until she had passed away into unconscious territory. What an angel. Truly, that had been more kindness than she deserved.

A thought began to occur to her then. Rudolf's unexpected kindness pushed her into a corner. A guilt began to overwhelm her. It bit into her slowly until her mind couldn't process past it.

She had no right to stay here.

She had no right to take advantage of this family and exploit them for help.

Frederick's motionless injured body had been proof of that.

She couldn't stay here. She wouldn't put them in danger anymore than she already had.

Her mind fluttered with her new made quick decision. She couldn't do this.

With a straight determined jaw, she began to pack her things.

Her hand gave a swift wave and the lights in her cavern seared out.

She had to leave.

- O -

She dragged her erupting satchel down and across the moist cave floor. With a strained yelp she hoisted the bag up and onto her back. "Why is this so heavy?" she huffed angrily taking a few steps to begin her trek out of the catacombs. Her satchel slipped and her shoulder jostled as her tablet slid to the rim of her bag. "No no no no no," she chanted as she helplessly watched the stone slip and flop to the floor. The weight of the object sent out a powerful '_boom'_.

Nancy held her breath. She listened carefully to the tweeting birds above.

With a relieved groan, she whispered, "Fuck." As she knelt down to the ground to retrieve her escapee. With a slap to her forehead she realized that she had yet to remove the mapping spell from her tablet, hence its ridiculous weight. Feeling a growing sense of confidence in her directional abilities she easily dismissed the spell she had cast. Stuffing the now weightless pentacle tablet back into her bag she drew the drawstrings up around it to prevent any further incidents. With another twist and a hoist she had the bag upon her back once more.

"Nancy," a small feminine voice called out to her.

Nancy's face fell. 'Not Anna, anybody but Anna,' she pleaded. Her head slowly turned around to see the petite young Vampire child. "Anna," her face tried to form a smile.

Anna's face showed bewilderment. "I awoke to a loud sound, is all well?" She rubbed one of her weary eyes with her hand.

"Yes! There's no need to worry!" Nancy wished so badly that she could have meant that. Her arm slipped the bag onto one of her shoulders so that she might hide it from view. "Go back to sleep, it's okay," she goaded gently, a hint of desperation appearing in her face.

Anna felt her guard raise and her mind pass into a more wakeful state. "What is it that are you holding?" She pointed innocently to the brighter fabric of the bag, peeking out from behind Nancy's glistening leather jacket.

Nancy brought the bag quickly around to the front of her body. Her mind moving rapidly to formulate a believable lie. "I'm bringing my satchel, so that...I can keep all the new ingredients for my magic that I'm...going out to find." Her mouth tumbled the words out.

Anna looked in Nancy's face for a shine of doubt but found none. Her concentrating mind broke with a yawn. She was so sleepy.

Nancy watched Anna without blinking.

"Come back soon, okay?" The child advised cutely before turning to head back down the corridor.

Her blonde hair bounced in tendrils down her back as she meandered away.

Nancy's mind leapt, and she moved without realizing it. Her hand had grabbed hold of Anna's shoulder. "Wait!" she stopped the child.

Anna's blinking eyes turned to her in wonderment.

"...I want to give you something," Nancy said lamely, wincing as she threw her bag to the ground and ripped it open to furiously search.

The child stepped closer to peer inside of her bag, but before she could do so Nancy's hand emerged with a bundled up bunch of linen. Her other hand worked to quickly shut the rest of the contents of her bag from view.

"Here," she presented the child with her gift.

Both of Anna's tiny hands reached out to accept the parcel.

Nancy gave her a look of encouragement.

The side of Anna's face wrinkled up in confusion. "A dead mouse?" Her dainty fingers held the fuzzy brown rodent up by its tail.

Nancy's kneeling form leaned towards her in hurried excitement. "It's from the old country," Her black finger nailed hand grasped onto the child's shoulder. "It will bring you luck."

Anna considered the mouse for a moment before her face began to glow.

"Thank you, dearest Nancy," she beamed in sudden pride at receiving such an invaluable gift.

"Thank _you_ Anna," Nancy's eyes twinkled with tears. Her limbs grabbed forward to embrace the bright little girl.

Anna's disoriented figure blinked rapidly at Nancy's release of her. "Nancy?"

Nancy's face split with a large smile down at Anna before she took up her bag and began to slowly stride away.

She didn't look back.

"Nancy?" Anna tried to call out to the Witch again. There was no response as Nancy's figure disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

- O -

Tears muddied Nancy's vision as she wove her way through the cemetery.

The sunlight glared down at her from its place in the sky; it was making her leather jacket almost unbearable to wear. Uncomfortable, and emotionally distraught she threw the satchel violently from her back and sent it barreling into one of the headstones. Angry tears made dark streaks down her round cheeks. "God Fucking damn it!" she screeched falling onto her knees into the grass and mud on the ground. Her hands clung wildly to her curls and pulled with frustration. Was there really no other option? Did she really have to leave?

If she left, they'd certainly find her.

She was terrified.

Trembling hands released her hold from her hair and moved to shield her eyes. Her eyeballs hurt from all the crying she had been doing, and the harsh light of the sun wasn't helping matters. 'I think I've cried more in the past twenty four hours than I have in my entire existence.' With an extremely heavy and petrified heart, Nancy rose from her knees, and retrieved her baggage from the base of Melinda Wallace's gravestone. "Sorry bout that," she apologized to the cement block representation of a human life. "I've got a lot going on."

Satisfied with her brief explanation to the stone she nodded to the rock before marching herself forward. With very little trouble she navigated her way back up to the large hill that Gregory had shown her the way to just the night before.

The rusty overgrown ivy gate winked at her from on the horizon.

- O -

Clutching the bundle of linen close to her chest, Anna shuffled her way back to the sleeping chamber. She felt strange. Her interaction with Nancy had seemed off, she couldn't shake the thought that something was awry. Her feet stopped as she gazed into the looming shadows of the tunnel to Nancy's chamber. She heaved a sigh. Normally she could usually spot the ever present blue illumination of Nancy's candles flickering in the back of the cavern, but on this day, she couldn't.

Anna's hands squeezed the bundled up mouse. She didn't-

Her short legs carried her quickly down the cave trail. Anna panicked.

Everything was gone. The cave end was as empty as it had ever been. Nancy had left them.

She was gone.

Anna's face wrinkled with tears. She had left in the daylight. She couldn't follow.

Anna hugged the mouse ever closer to her person as she trudged her way back out of the now lonely catacomb end and into the occupied cave of her family. She tried her very best not to awake her parents and siblings to her sorrows but couldn't help the hitching sobs that would occasionally wreak her form. She paced fitfully in the chamber, until the gruff sound of Gregory's voice halted her rhythm.

"What on earth is wrong with you?" he grumbled bitterly, annoyed at having his slumber interrupted.

Anna's reddened face turned to the upside down head of her eldest brother. She drew in hiccuping breaths before announcing, "N-Nancy's left us."

Gregory's dark sunken eyes widened in astonishment. He had spied her crying the night before, but he had no idea she would be so rash. He felt a mix of feelings hit him. Relief, suspicion and frustration being the most potent.

"Good riddance," he spoke finally to his fretful child sister.

Anna's hysteria reached a new height. "Why do you dislike her so?"

Gregory's eyes closed at the question and pretended not to have heard her.

Anna shook her head at her brother and opened the folds of fabric to once more gaze down at Nancy's gift. Her bleary eyes widened in surprise, she could feel a large powerful magic possessing the small creature. Anna gave a watery smile. Nancy must really have cared about her. This was a rare gift indeed.

Dutifully, Anna did her best to regain her composure and finally reluctantly joined her family in their suspended rest.

- O -

The sun was setting low in the sky as Nancy unhappily trudged through the woods. Leaves crackled and branches snapped under the pressure of her strides. "I could've sworn that I passed by that stump," she antagonized the piece of foliage. Her face scrunched up in exhausted annoyance. "Seriously," she puffed trying to calm her racing nerves, as she gave another roundabout look to the forest around her. Looking for any trance of suspicious shadow, and straining her ears for the call of dogs. She was crazy paranoid. She didn't realize just how comfortable she was with the Vampires until she had left. The dripping stalagmites of the underground. It was the perfect hiding-

No.

I can't think about that.

I really can't go back.

I'm a danger to them.

I'm nothing but trouble.

They'll hate me for it.

_I'll_ hate me for it.

_Anna's pale porcelain face glittered in her head._

Nancy felt herself falter.

_Rudolf's upside down face looked at her in gratitude. "I must thank you again, for your help tonight."_

He was such a little man. She smirked to herself.

No! What the hell am I doing?!

She was hit by a barrage.

_Freda smiled her tight lipped small smile at her, while gesturing majestically with hands. Frederick's eyebrows rose humorously up to his widow's peak._

And Gregory, well-

_"I would have killed you that night." _Her mind relayed.

Great. She had headed down the path of no return.

As horrifying as her last memory was, she knew her mind had been made up.

I'm so selfish. Why do I suck so much?

Feeling all kinds of foolish, Nancy changed her course.

- O -

Gregory's eyes opened to an empty room. His family members had all risen for the night hours and he suspected Anna's disturbance of his sleep had caused him to wake up far later than usual. Just why had she woken him up again?

_Anna's tear filled face flooded his vision._

That's right. The Witch.

She had left.

The thought left him feeling far more annoyed than he thought he should feel.

I should go on a hunt. His frustrated mind overrode his annoyed buzzing brain.

- O -

The gray fuzz of his bat body glided effortlessly above the clouds. He rode the air currents, taking dips and swirls until he had reached a safe point over the forest below. He sent out his sonar. Answering waves shot back up to him. A deer and a raccoon were roaming the forest floor. Disinterested, he shot another wave down. His bat body nearly fell out of the sky. There was a human wandering alone in the woodlands below. How peculiar.

But he was feeling just volatile enough to go down below for a bite.

His wings turned with purpose as he began his descent. With incredible precision he had bypassed each and every wispy cloud and spindly tree branch in his path. The practiced grace of an aged Vampire aided him as he transformed conveniently behind the berth of a tree. His ears observed the crinkling of leaves as his intended target came closer. He zeroed in on the kill.

_Crunch._

_Crunch. Crunch._

_Crunch._

His dreadlocks shook as he threw himself out from his hiding spot to hiss a menacing warning at his mark.

"You!" a familiar voice screeched. "You scared the _shit_ out of me!" Nancy snarled as she tried to collect herself and her scattered belongings from the ground.

Gregory's face relaxed marginally. An unexpected relief rushed through him. The Witch. His mind worked quickly, she had left in the daylight. Why was she still so close to the graveyard?

"You make it far too easy for me to frighten you," Gregory stated, forcing a scowl onto his face that he really didn't feel.

Nancy brushed the remnants of dirt and leaves from her ripped blue jeans. She shook her head in tired amusement. She didn't feel like jabbering back and forth with the exasperating boy. She had spent hours trying to navigate her way back to the cemetery. It's a wonder she even made it there that fateful night.

At Nancy's lack of response Gregory cleared his throat. "You were trying to leave us weren't you?"

Straight to the point eh? Nancy tried to look startled. "How dare you insinuate such a thing, I was out looking for herbs," she stated properly placing an offended hand to her chest.

Gregory scoffed and rose his split eyebrow at the arrangement of her enchanted candles littering the forest floor.

Nancy's cheeks flushed with color, but she simply kept holding her head high.

"Anna woke me after your departure, I know that you left," he paused. "And it wasn't to gather your silly herbs," his pale gaze seared her.

Busted. Her face fell. She cracked open like an egg. "Yes," she oozed stiffly. "I was leaving."

Gregory nodded. "But you have...decided to return?" he questioned taking a step closer to her form.

Nancy looked unsure of herself. "I don't know, actually."

Gregory attempted to look indifferent to the Witch's plight. "What appears to be the issue?"

Nancy's eyes lowered from the boy's dead eyed stare. "It's really not that easy to explain."

The image of her sobbing body embracing his little brother flashed through his mind. Overly curious. "Go ahead, try," he demanded.

Nancy scrunched up her face at his abrupt attitude. She eyed him warily for a few seconds before ultimately deciding that she really had nothing to lose by telling him. "It's dangerous for me to stay with your family." After a pause, she added. "There's someone after me."

Gregory's facial expression didn't change.

His lack of response unnerved her. "So uh, yeah," she fumbled with her jacket. "It just wouldn't feel right for me to put you or your family in danger...on my behalf."

The Vampire boy nodded. He could respect that. He really could. He felt himself relax a bit. He made a decision.

"We should get back, the sun is beginning to peak."

Did she hear him correctly. "Get back? Did you just listen to me?"

Gregory glared at her. "You listen," he leaned in closer to her. "You may mark yourself dangerous, but my family has never counted themselves to be so hopeful since your arrival in our accursed catacombs."

After digesting his convoluted wording, Nancy was shocked. She hadn't been expecting that sort of admittance. From Gregory no less.

He rolled his blue eyes at her wide eyed expression.

"We must go," he ordered without letting her get a word in.

Stunned, she looked down at the pale hand he offered her.

His face still looked grumpy and annoyed but with the hand he was holding out to her, she could almost mistake him for being friendly. Almost.

With a choked laugh she grabbed hold of the presented limb and squawked shrilly as he lifted them into the sky.


	8. Chapter VIII

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises...

Author Note: WooHooo~! Thank you so much Author-fan2012 your encouragement is much appreciated ;D! We're getting into the thicket! Pretty soon the romance will bite...just a few chapters away ;)!

- O -

"You're not even a bat!" she squawked. "How is this possible?!" her limbs flailed as he dove through the air with her. Her fingers squeezed around his frigid hand. She was flying. She was legitimately _flying_! This had levitation spells beat.

"I didn't know you guys could fly when you weren't bats!" Nancy shouted over the night breeze. It danced wildly through her curly hair. For the first time since they left the ground, she turned her glowing face to look at the teenage Vampire.

Gregory's face reflected the epitome of practiced indifference.

But underneath, smugness bubbled.

The rolling white misty clouds greeted her as they floated through the air. She sputtered as they flew through a particularly fluffy one.

Gregory did his best to not let his amusement show. "You know, if you keep gawking and screeching at every bit of scenery we pass," he paused to catch her gaze. "I might just lose my concentration and drop you," he warned with a teasing fanged smile.

Nancy squinted at his joking.

She had half a mind to let go of his hand, just to see if he would catch her. She contemplated the likelihood of that actually happening. She really considered it.

Nah, one act of random kindness was good enough for the night. She wouldn't risk the return of the Vampire boy's wrath.

Or would she?

Taking in a great breath she loosened her grip and felt herself slip easily out of Gregory's hold.

She had no time for regrets or thoughts of any kind, as adrenaline raced through her free falling form.

The Earth lurched closer and closer and was creeping steadily upward to meet her.

With a panicked but accepting mind she processed that Gregory would not be-

A steely grip latched onto her wrist and held her still.

Her body swayed and floundered from side to side as she dangled in the air.

Her arm bruised.

The two were suspended just above the height of the trees.

The Witch waited with bated breath. She was frozen.

...

Finally, Nancy looked up daringly into the boy's face.

Her beads jangled in the ripping wind.

She was stunned to find a most unusual expression there. The remnants of panic, and dare she say, _fear_?

As quickly as she had identified it, the flicker was gone, and she was left to find a much more familiar countenance.

He was livid.

Well, about as livid as a sallow dead face could be.

" You. Are. Insane," he spat as he yanked her arm forward so that he could elevate her back up to his level.

She winced in slight pain at his roughness. But ultimately found that she couldn't keep a straight face. She exploded with heaving laughter. "I've always wanted to go sky diving!" she choked. Her body was still pulsing with adrenaline.

They flew onward in silence for a moment.

Gregory tired to keep his composure. "I hardly find this amusing." He wasn't doing a very good job.

Nancy took in a great sniff of air before directing a giant smile at him. "Oh c'mon, you have to admit," she raised her eyebrows. "That was hilarious!"

Gregory only gave her a deep scowl. The girl was a maniac. "_That_ was foolish."

Nancy could do nothing but roll her eyes. She had had her fun, so she supposed she could give the boy a break. He actually saved her after all, even if it was her intention to put herself in danger in the first place. She had to give him some credit.

Her hand tightened its grasp on his.

Gregory either ignored her, or pretended not to notice.

- O -

Her shoes sank into the peat of the cemetery as they finally touched down to the ground. "Yuck," she winced trying to rip her feet free of the swampy soil. She yanked and tugged but to no avail.

Gregory showed surprising patience, as he waited for her to remove her shoes from the muddy Earth.

With a loud '_squelch'_ she was released. She stumbled clumsily to join Gregory at one of the catacomb entry holes.

He nodded to her curtly before he took a step and his body disappeared down into the darkness.

"Show off," she muttered. She quickly dropped her satchel down into the cavern hoping to have hit her mark, but sighed when she only heard the sound of it hitting the ground. With a practiced ease she crouched down and shimmied her way into the hole.

Nancy fell onto the dusty floor in a heap. But recovered easily. She stood quickly and catapulted her bag back up onto her back.

Looking around, she saw no sign or trace of her Vampire boy wonder. She shrugged in indifference before making confident strides down the darkened corridor. The further she ventured the louder the bouncing voices got. She was really starting to feel like a creeper. Always listening and dropping in on the Vampire family's conversations.

Her head peeked around the corner to see an angel statue. She was back by the main room. Perfect. She could find her way back to her cavern end from there. Holding her head high she sauntered into the cavernous room. It was her intention to walk by without any notice or acknowledgement, but fate had other plans for her.

"Witch," the deepened voice of Frederick halted her hastened steps.

He had called to her just as she had made it to the center of the large high ceilinged room.

With a face encompassing wince she turned to his voice. "Yes sir," she bobbed her head to him. With surprise she noticed that the entirety of the Vampire family was in her company. This had to be the first time she'd seen them all in the same room together, other than when they were sleeping of course. She poignantly tried to ignore all other characters in the room and focused solely on Frederick.

"Tell me," he began. "Did you mean to tell us of your deceit, or did you wish for us to find it by ourselves."

Nancy blinked. Was he talking about her trying to leave? She honestly wasn't sure. Better play it safe.

"What?" she asked stupidly.

Frederick's face reflected annoyance. "You are here to aid my family," he looked down at her from his full looming height. "It is an absolute mockery to find you and all of your possessions suddenly gone from our company without any notice."

Nancy felt her eyes water. Why was Frederick so intimidating? This wasn't going well. They weren't supposed to notice her absence. She'd only been gone for a few hours for fuck's sake.

She felt herself begin to crumble. How was she supposed to explain that she had left to keep him and his family safe? He'd demand that she leave again that very instant.

With a withering look she noticed Frederick's form stumble slightly. He was still weak. Fuck. She was so fucking selfish.

"I-"

"She was out gathering herbs," Gregory intercepted. He stepped forward to the center of the room, in challenge to his father.

Nancy couldn't breathe. She might as well still have been cascading downwards in the sky.

Frederick's head jerked to the side to regard his son.

"She was lost," he provided with a small head tilt in Nancy's direction. "Couldn't find her way back in the dark, so I aided her."

Frederick narrowed his eyes in scrutiny. He turned to look at Nancy once more. "Is this true ,Witch?"

Normally she would have scoffed. That wasn't her name. But given the circumstances she could do nothing but quickly nod in affirmation.

Frederick looked harshly between his son and the Witch.

"Very well."

Nancy almost relaxed.

"But I would like proof."

"Proof?" Nancy parroted.

Frederick nodded his head solemnly.

Nancy glanced at Gregory. He looked nervous. What the hell did Frederick want? With a panicked thought, she realized that she didn't have any herbs in her bag!

That's a dead giveaway.

Frederick reached down to the necklace encircling his neck. His long fingers effortlessly grabbed hold of the round golden ring at the base of the chain. "This is the Ring of Attamon," he explained.

Nancy's face squinted in confusion. Her fingers tightened around the arm straps of her satchel.

"Hold on to the ring and we shall see where your truth lies," he spoke, readily reaching his arm out to offer her hold of the ring.

She gulped.

Well, this is it I guess. Can't really get out of this one.

She reached out a trembling hand.

The moment her fingers made contact with the overly warm metal, she felt her mind roll.

It was just like a much more powerful version of her gypsy orb. Except, she had absolutely no control.

It hurt. A lot. It felt like her skull was being torn open by its bony seam.

Camera-like flashes started to hit her. All were fuzzy and unrecognizable, but as they increased in frequency a vision began to unfold.

_The details of the room were impossibly fuzzy._

_She was standing on a hardwood floor, an open window was blowing cold wind at her._

_Nancy felt a tickling sensation on her hand. _

_She shook her arm to alleviate it. _

_A few seconds passed and it returned. _

_She glanced down to her hand to observe a flurry of cockroaches scurrying along her knuckles. With another disinterested shake, the roaches scrambled up her hand and into the sleeve of her jacket._

_Her entire body itched. They were all over her. Before she knew it, she had thrown herself to the ground and was writhing as they ran rampant up and down her limbs. With unadulterated horror, she realized that they were in her mouth as well. She squeezed her eyes closed as their feathery feelers crawled up and out of her screaming throat. _

_Fat tears fell down her face as she seized in terror. Her hands pummeled her own body to try to remove the frightening creatures. Nothing would stop them. Her fingers began to burn. She forced her eyes open. The moment she held her hands up, they transformed. Her fingers grew, and began to slither. _

_They had become snakes. _

_Nancy tore her throat with a scream._

Frederick stepped away from her.

Nancy took in shaking breaths as her body tried to recover from the pyschological trauma.

Frederick spared her a bewildered look, before he took yet another step back.

He must have seen it too. Those bugs.

She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Well, what has happened?" Anna asked impatiently, completely oblivious to the turmoil of her father and her Witch. "Is Nancy to stay?"

Frederick looked wearily at his daughter. Then to Nancy.

Nancy looked steadily to the ground, still attempting to catch her breath and calm herself. Before Frederick could respond to his child's questioning Nancy had already gathered her fallen bag from the floor and vacated the room.

With hurried surprise Anna scampered after her.

"What did you see my darling?" Freda stepped carefully forward.

Frederick blinked quickly before answering his wife. "...Nothing, it twas nothing."

"I see," she spoke, but didn't push the subject.

A tense moment passed.

"...She will stay," he spoke tiredly.

Whatever cruel scene they had shared, it was clear that the girl was no villain. Quite the contrary.

She was the victim.

- O -

"I knew you would not abandon us!" Anna gushed happily.

Nancy tried to smile at the dear child but her strength was failing. That hex had really rattled her.

Anna gasped in excitement as she watched Nancy cast the spells in the cave end that made everything begin to glow blue. Just as she positioned her candles back to their precise positions she heard a small sound.

"Nancy?" a small boyish voice inquired.

"Rudolf," Nancy gave the boy a strained smile.

He glanced quickly to Anna before reiterating, "We are most glad to have you back."

Nancy gave a tense laugh. "I'm glad to be back." It was weak, but there was actual honesty in her words.

"We were so worried, I truly thought you had left us," Anna's sweet trusting voice added.

Nancy pinched her eyes shut and kneeled down to embrace the two children. "I'm so sorry I worried you guys." She really didn't know what else to say. What else could she have possibly said to them?

Gregory watched her cradle his siblings.

As Nancy retreated from her hold of the children, she felt herself squint at the sight of a buckled shoe. Gregory was watching her from the cover of shadows at the edge of her tunnel. Startled by the realization she tried to stop herself from outwardly expressing her surprise.

With a quickly moving mind she addressed her brood of Vampire children. "It's been a long day, I think I'm going to go to sleep," she spoke quickly, even going as far as to throw a fake yawn into her admission.

Anna gasped. "Of course!" She grabbed hold of Rudolf's arm. "Come brother, Nancy needs her rest."

As the chipper voice of Anna disappeared down the passage, Nancy spared a look for the buckled shoes of Gregory.

They were gone.

Minutes ticked on with not even a glimpse of Gregory's appearance.

With a sigh of annoyance she quietly sauntered her way out of her cave and looked around cautiously for his scroungy form.

Just as she neared the end she was stopped by the sound of a throat clearing.

Her head turned swiftly to the side.

"Are you searching for something?" he spoke lazily, staring off to the side.

She jumped in surprise. He blended so easily into the cave wall.

"No," she blurted out. On instinct. For some reason she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was looking for him.

He turned his head to her.

She swallowed.

"Okay well, yeah, actually...I wanted to talk to you."

Her admittance almost made him recoil.

"...Why?" his voice was peppered in suspicion.

Her hands began fiddling with the spiked collar at her neck.

"Well, I uh...I believe thanks are in order," she spoke stiffly, feeling extremely awkward all of the sudden.

"Thanks?" he was incredulous.

"Yeah, you did a lot for me tonight," she kicked at some dust by her shoe. "More than a lot, actually."

Gregory could do nothing but stare.

"..."

The awkwardness tipped to a new height. Nancy couldn't handle it. She didn't know what else to say.

So her body hurled forward to grab hold of Gregory.

Her arms wrapped strangely around his dirty grey trench coat, and squeezed for a moment before flinging back off of him.

Gregory was rendered immobile. He had half a mind to push Nancy off of him. Her unexpected contact had felt like an attack at first before he realized that she was trying to _hug_ him.

She cleared her throat.

Gregory opened his mouth to speak.

She interrupted him. "So yeah! Thanks!" she practically yelled before walking briskly back to her glowing grotto.

'What is wrong with me?!' her mind screeched.

Not even daring to risk a look behind her to see the dreaded boy's reaction. That hex must have been worse than she thought. She actually _hugged_ her worst nightmare. Enemy number one since she set foot in the cemetery.

But it wasn't that simple anymore was it? For whatever reason, he had convinced her to return to his family, he had saved her daredevil ass from spattering all over the ground, and worse yet, he had defended her against Frederick. That one really got to her. Now she really didn't deserve that. Part of her really wanted to be caught in her deception. They'd be better off without her after all.

Especially after that vision. What the hell was that supposed to be anyway?! This was her second run in with a cockroach hex. Her body was still trembling from the unexpected experience.

What was Frederick thinking? He must have seen it too. She had left before she could even inquire such a thing. Was he even going to allow her to stay? Well, he hadn't found her and told her to leave yet so she was going to have to say no. But whatever they had shared, Nancy was positive that it didn't bode well for her.

Feeling a bit dizzy all the sudden Nancy sat herself down by the glow of her candles.

Her hands shook and reached forward to hold onto her head. Fingers slipped by and tangled into her curls. Her head was burning.

_They were crawling underneath her clothes._

_They were crawling in her hair._

_They were crawling beneath her skin._

She began to chant,''Fire, fire burning bright turn my darkness into light! Take away my bad luck ill, bring me nothing but good will." Her voice cracked, "Bad luck came and stayed too long, be gone forever, be gone, be gone! With this fire burning bright, bring me good luck, bring me light!''

Bright yellow streaks shot out from her figure and bounced off the blue walls.

Her breathing became shallow.

Before she could form any more coherent worried thoughts, she had slumped forward and passed out on the sticky cave floor.


	9. Chapter IX

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises. *Cries for an eternity*

Author Note: Author-fan2012, you are my hero! The light at the end of my tunnel! Thanks a billion for the reviews ;D!

- O -

Nancy covered her mouth as she coughed up a storm. She wheezed and gasped until she could finally clear her throat of whatever dust or obstruction had entered. "God damn," she muttered into her sleek jacket sleeve. She had been moving a few loose rocks at the end of her cave and they must have unearthed some foul airborne spawn. With a groan and a careful twist of her body she shoved the most probable culprit boulder to the side. As it scarped across the ground to its new permanent location Nancy's mind flashed.

_Glossy backed roaches emerged from beneath the rock._

She gave out a panicked gasp and threw herself away from the stone. She blinked for a few minutes before finally concluding that the terrible bugs had been imaginary. Her hands ran worriedly through her hair. "This is such crap." And she had been so hopeful. After she cast that spell of protection last night she had slept without disruption. Absolutely no bad dreams. Nothing. Now she was seeing the imaginary little buggers. She breathed deeply out of her mouth. I suppose there isn't a spell for hyperactive paranoia.

Or was there? That might be worth looking in to. It would mess up her carefully crafted magic equilibrium, but that was a price she was willing to take. Cockroaches were nothing to fuck with with. She would have sooner ended her life skydiving the night before than to have to live the rest of it seeing those nasty creatures on a daily basis.

With a cringe and a new found determination she retrieved her pentacle tablet from a stony ledge. Her fingers ran gently over the carved divots of the stone. "Fire in the air, fire in the ground, I use the fire that can not be found." Her mind tingled as it was rewarded with the information that she had sought. Her eyes opened slowly.

"Shit."

She needed the cut of a fresh fern.

Which was _above ground_. She had to go back up onto the surface to get the plant materials. She felt that that just wasn't going to fly. No way. Not with her Vampires it wasn't. With a groan she held her forehead. Besides, she was supposed to have been gathering herbs _yesterday_. Not running away. There was absolutely _no_ running away happening, only herb gathering. With a wince she looked around the dark of her chamber. It was quiet. She strained her ears. She almost swore she could hear the scuttling legs of large roaches crawling about. There was no way in hell she could deal with that. No way in _hell_.

She was just going to have to convince Frederick. She was going to have to find a way.

With shaking legs she rose swiftly and removed herself from her now tainted glowing blue sanctuary.

- O -

Gregory leaned leisurely against the bumpy cave wall. His hand beheld a small pebble that he was currently using to amuse himself. He threw the small rock easily up into the air before capturing it once more in his grasp. His thoughts were troubled. Stirring around and around, infinitely curious about the Witch inhabitant of his family's catacombs.

Why had he told her to return? Why had she embraced him? Why did he feel this way?

His thoughts rolled like the pebble he was lolling around in his palm.

He blinked quickly.

The answer came quite simply.

She was _interesting_. She was the most interesting disrupting creature that his family had encountered in centuries. She had completely disturbed the boredom of their underground lives. Or his life at least.

Though, he wasn't lying about his family's more optimistic adjustment of life. Her presence brought about a strange sense of hope to his cave dwelling kin. He could care less about whether or not they found the bloody stone, and he heavily doubted in the sneaky Witch's proclaimed abilities. But for whatever reason, her presence gave his mother and father security. Whether Frederick would admit it or not, Gregory could tell. Granted, suspicions ran high. The Witch had yet to show them any progress in her research of the stone. But Gregory surprisingly found that he trusted her.

He rolled the pebble over in his hand.

She would do what she could to help his family. After last night, he found that he believed this trail of thoughts.

She was honest with him. She left to protect his family. She _cared_ about the fate of his family. That was all Gregory needed to know.

He tightened his hold around the rock until he felt the surface of it begin to crumble.

She was grateful to him.

She had tried to _embrace_ him. The same way he had observed how she would grab his siblings in her weak hold.

He began to sift the remaining particles of the pebble through his fingers.

He felt uncomfortable. As much as he was intrigued by the Witch, he was also repelled.

She was absolutely unpredictable. One minute she was cowering before him then the next she was touching him. _Hugging_ him. Even more bizarre was her suicidal descent from the sky. _That_ had been so wholly unexpected that Gregory could do no more than watch her small body assail to the Earth. He had wanted to laugh and beat her senseless at that unanticipated moment. She was altogether strange.

He wondered vaguely if all of the human race had become so vulgar and impulsive.

His dread locks shifted as he turned his head to the side. The object of his thoughts had manifested, he had heard the raspy lilt of the Witch's voice.

- O -

Nancy gulped before rounding the corner to see the full form of Frederick's back. The high pointed collar of his clothing shifted as he turned his head to regard her.

"Witch," he greeted with little emotion.

Nancy nodded. She found herself suddenly wordless in his company.

His eyes looked haunted by her abrupt appearance. He had seen the same vision. The cockroach hex. She was sure of it. _Great_.

"Do you require assistance?" Frederick droned at the Witch, a bit perturbed by her silence in his company.

Her presence unnerved him. She could tell by the slightest curl of his upper lip. Maybe she could use that to her advantage. "Yes, actually," she drawled. A sense of power hit her. "I was so lost last night that I forgot to retrieve a magic material for one of my spells." Good. She had said that without stuttering.

Frederick's black eyebrows rose and fell quizzically. Let the Witch leave again? He was skeptical. He wasn't even sure if he believed her about the night previous. The Ring of Attamon had only revealed that bizarre scene of the vermin devouring the poor girl. It had shown him nothing of her adventure in the woods. Frederick felt himself frown. He didn't trust her. He couldn't be held responsible for her escape, her story could prove to be a ruse, and then she will have truly left them. He didn't want to be accountable for the death of his family's hope. He turned his gaze down to her imploring face. "I trust you will take company?"

Nancy squinted in confusion. "Company?"

"Yes," Frederick gave a stern nod of his head. "One of my children will accompany you." He stated, rather than asked her.

Nancy nodded hurriedly, he was actually going to let her go? "Of course, yes of course," she slurred out in pleasantly surprised affirmation.

Frederick looked pleased. "You will not be lost without a guide this night," he spoke satisfied with her positive response. Maybe she truly did not intend to leave after all? Maybe his son's word rang true?

- O -

Gregory watched the scene with hooded eyes. She was going above ground _again_? He was beyond curious. Why would she return to the surface so soon? Before he could enter the scene and volunteer his assistance, the small frame of his younger brother emerged. He must have been stalking the conversation as well. Gregory wanted to smirk at the coincidence.

- O -

"I shall take Nancy above ground," Rudolf stated factually to his father.

Nancy blinked in surprise at the boys flurry of appearance. 'He must have been listening to us,' she realized with a jolt. It made her paranoid. She had no idea. Who else could be slithering around in the crypt? With a quick sniff she dispelled her drifting thoughts. Wasn't she one to talk. She was the resident number one eavesdropper in this hole.

"Very well, Witch," Frederick gave her a steel eyed gaze. "Rudolf," he spread his hardened look to his youngest son. "I wish you both safe journey." With that last bit of announcement he swept his moth eaten cloak back and swept himself from the room.

Nancy turned a large smile over to Rudolf. "So, it's you and me to tonight huh?"

Rudolf scratched the back of his bashfully. "I believe it is." He looked up to Nancy in sudden remembrance. "I apologize for listening to your conversation. I admit that I was more than curious when I realized it twas you who was talking to my father."

Nancy shrugged in indifference. "Don't worry about it. I would've done the same if I were you."

Rudolf smiled slightly at her easy admittance.

Nancy blinked and shifted her arm so that she could play with her nose ring.

Rudolf coughed for a moment before speaking. "Are you ready to venture out?"

Nancy grinned. "Let's go," she straightened herself before taking confident steps forward.

"B-But do you not need your bag?" Rudolf stuttered eloquently at her sudden enthusiasm.

Nancy stopped her steps to ponder for only a second. "Nah, I just need one thing." She winked at the Vampire child.

Rudolf nodded quickly before attempting to match her quick steps through his home.

"You navigate as well as we do," he praised as he turned to follow her down a tunnel that would assuredly lead them to an exit hole.

Nancy laughed happily. "I'm glad to hear it."

- O -

Rudolf stood patiently next to a tombstone as Nancy wiggled her way out of the ground. He tried to keep himself from smiling too much at her annoyed squeaks and pleas at him to put in a word with his family to widen the entry holes.

She pulled herself to the surface with one final hurl. "What I would give to turn into a bat so I could just fly out of these damn needle head holes," she wheezed to herself. Her hands slid around in the moist grass for a moment before gaining enough ground to push herself up into a stand. She huffed at the unblemished Vampire child before her. He wasn't covered in mud.

He hid his smile behind his intricately clothed arm. "Are you quite prepared now?" He offered his hand.

Nancy felt the adrenaline return. It hadn't occurred to her until this moment. She would be flying again tonight. Damn. There was no help. She was going to be addicted. Eying Rudolf's extended limb excitedly, she inwardly promised herself she wouldn't go daredevil again this night. That was reserved exclusively for the annoyance of Gregory. With an unconscious nod she took hold of Rudolf's hand and felt herself begin to soar.

- O -

They descended smoothly into the dense forest at Nancy's instruction. With amusement she noticed that Rudolf was more considerate and didn't deliberately try to run her into clouds like his brother had the previous night.

Rudolf propelled them carefully down through the crisp wings of the tree's branches expertly.

Nancy was beyond impressed. As they touched down to the ground she whooped happily and released Rudolf's tiny hand.

Rudolf tried not to laugh as Nancy bounced up and down on the moss of the forest floor. "What brings about such happiness?" He was genuinely curious.

Nancy stopped her frolicking to shrug carelessly at Rudolf. "I don't know, I just like flying I guess."

Rudolf shook his head in amusement.

Her mind buzzed with the sound of her heartbeat. There just really wasn't anything quite like the feeling of flight. It took a full ten minutes before her mind could focus again on her task at hand.

With purposeful strides she glided herself through the forest until she reached a large wild fern overgrowth outstretching from beneath a fallen oak tree. Rudolf stepped cautiously behind her.

"Is this the plant you seek?" His small voice questioned.

She gave a determined nod before squatting herself down to begin the tedious process of extracting sections of the fern by its roots. Rudolf sat quietly atop the fallen oak beside her.

Not before long Nancy grew tired of the silence and the eerie sounds of the forest. "Rudolf, ask me some stuff," she grunted as she dug deep into the earth to retrieve her prize.

The child blinked curiously at being addressed. "What would you like me to inquire?"

Nancy winced as she tugged on a particularly difficult root. "Anything, something you want to know about." She looked up into his confused face. "This forest is really creeping me out, distract me please." She elaborated finally on her reasoning.

Rudolf nodded in quiet understanding. He appeared to ponder for a moment.

Nancy's hands yanked tirelessly on her root.

"What did you and my father see in the Ring of Attamon?"

Nancy face blanched and she released the root with a squawk. She had fallen backwards onto the mossy floor.

Rudolf jumped easily from his roost. "I apologize! Are you well?" His face reflected worry.

Nancy sputtered a nervous laugh before righting herself. "Yeah," she rubbed her dirt covered hands together. "Anything but that question, okay?" she smiled tightly up to him before submerging her hands back into the filthy ground.

Rudolf felt guilt hit him. "Please forgive me, I did not realize-"

Nancy cut him off. "It's okay Rudolf," she gave him her brightest smile. "It's okay." She turned her head back to her work.

He felt himself inhale. Nancy had never used his name before. He felt strangely happy. He certainly was not as dear a friend to Nancy as his sister Anna, but it pleased him greatly to hear her so friendly with him.

"How bout I tell you a bit about my childhood, hmm?" she spoke distractedly as she dug through the earth. Not even looking in his direction.

Rudolf's ears perked up at her offer. "I would very much like to hear about it," he spoke politely. Doing his best to hide his intense curiosity on the topic. He figured that the childhood of a Witch had to be more than what might be considered ordinary.

"Let's see," she pondered. "To start out, I guess I should say that I was born in America."

Rudolf's eyes widened at the admittance.

"That's why I have this silly accent," she wrinkled her face funnily. The fern emerged finally from the soil.

She fondled the rough ends of the root. "I was a little devil back in the day," she smirked to herself. Memories of her early mischief flooded her mind. "I was born with non-magic parents," she added quietly.

Rudolf nearly fell off of his seat on the uprooted tree. "Truly?" he was amazed. "Your parents were not Magicians?"

Nancy laughed loudly at his surprise. Magicians. Ha! She wished. Then she would have been able to turn her magic off. She wished that she could have been born a magician. She smiled wryly. "Yeah, and I was quite the curious little trouble maker," she sent a smile towards Rudolf. "Not much has changed since then."

Rudolf smiled a small smile back at her.

"I once animated the silverware in my mother's kitchen," she recalled fondly. "It danced for an entire week."

Rudolf chuckled lightly at the short tale. He could hardly imagine such a ridiculous scene, but he had no doubts that the Witch before him had performed such a feat.

She smiled slightly at Rudolf's laughter. "My parents had no explanation for the phenomenon." She shook her head. "They called a ghost specialist, they honestly thought it was a haunting."

Rudolf's laughter stopped short. He was surprised. "Didn't you tell them it was your doing?"

Nancy sighed. "Of course I did, but I was seven years old. They thought I was just being imaginative." Nancy ripped the last remaining ferns from the earth. "They caught on after a while though," she mumbled under her breath.

Rudolf helped Nancy up from the ground. "...Are you ready to return?" he asked carefully, he could tell Nancy's mood was plummeting.

Nancy turned to Rudolf, very grateful for the subject change. "Yeah, I'm ready to fly!" she proclaimed grasping the child's hand eagerly.

Rudolf smiled widely at her expression before lifting them in flight.

- O -

Nancy smiled with content as she meandered through the caves with Rudolf beside her. The courteous boy refused to allow her to walk alone to her cave end and insisted that he walk with her to it. Such a little gentlemen. She only wished his older brother could be so well mannered.

As they neared her stop she flipped herself around to look down at Rudolf's small form. "Thank you Rudolf, you were a huge help," she dropped down to her knees and gave the boy a short hug.

Rudolf pat her back quickly in embarrassment. "It was nothing Nancy."

She stood back up to her full height.

"Should you need to go out again, I will be more than happy to help," Rudolf offered with a small serious smile.

Nancy shifted the bundle of ferns under her arm. "Actually, I might need to go out again tomorrow night if you're free?"

Rudolf nodded in surprise. "That's rather soon, but it's no problem," he gestured with his hand. "I shall see you here then, tomorrow's eve?"

Nancy gave a nod of her head. "Yeah, I'll see ya then," she held her hand up in a wave from behind, as she made her way down her blue illuminated tunnel.

Rudolf smiled to himself as he turned to make his way back to his family's sleeping quarters. Nancy was fun to be around. He looked forward to their adventure tomorrow.

"Rudolf," a familiar voice called to him as he turned a corner.

He shifted his head to find the imposing form of his older brother leaning against an angel statue.

"Gregory," Rudolf greeted as he stopped to adhere to his brother's call.

"You took the Witch out tonight, didn't you?"

Rudolf was confused at the question. Not a question really. It had sounded like an accusation.

"I did," he began in confusion. How did Gregory even know about that? They weren't even gone half the night. He doubted even Anna had noticed Nancy's disappearance. "I took Nancy to the surface." He corrected the name unconsciously.

Gregory crossed his arms across his chest and glowered down at his sibling. "Don't worry about taking her tomorrow night," his boot skid as he angled it against the statue he was leaning against. "I'll take her."

Rudolf was beyond confused. But with the solid look Gregory was giving him, he didn't question the decision. "Very well," Rudolf nodded to his brother before moving quickly from his company. How strange. He had thought Nancy and Gregory didn't get along. He hoped that his elder brother wouldn't use this as an opportunity to upset the Witch. He suddenly feared for her. Maybe he should have fought Gregory's odd declaration. But somehow he had known of their meeting again tomorrow. He wondered if his family had anything to do with this switch. He looked briefly over his shoulder to see the unmoved figure of Gregory. Rudolf shrugged his Victorian clothed padded shoulders before slipping around the bend to get his rest for the night.

- O -

Nancy worked hurriedly through the day preparing her powerful incantation of hex and paranoia prevention. It was taking a lot more time than she had initially anticipated. She had worked without stop for almost the entirety of her daylight hours. Her viciously built up internal clock informed her of this. She even ventured to guess that her Vampires would be awakening any minute now.

Damn. At the realization she threw her mud and charcoal caked hands down in submission and sat quietly on the ground. She still needed thirteen bundles of Tenur moss. Once she had that, she was sure she could complete the spell. She could just slap herself. She had been stepping all over it just the night before with Rudolf. How annoying.

With a labored sigh she made herself stand. The sooner she got her materials, the sooner she could cast the spell.

_The hiss of a cockroach sounded off from inside her ear._

She jumped and held her head in complete panic. She had to get this under control.

More motivated than ever, she shot forward to find her Vampire child guide for the night.

- O -

It was still pretty early so she wasn't surprised that he hadn't been waiting for her at the edge of her tunnel. With her intuition as her light she led herself around the underground maze.

"Nancy," the boyish voice of Rudolf sounded off from behind her.

She whirled around with a gasp on her lips. "There you are!" she spoke in relief. Thankfully, she hadn't had to adventure far. "Are you ready to take me upstairs?" she joked with a smile.

Rudolf gave her a strange look. "Actual-"

His voice was overridden by Gregory's. "I'm taking you tonight." The brutish figure of the older boy made himself visible.

She squinted at him. She didn't know what to say. "Are you serious?" she directed the question at no one in particular. But at the nervous look Rudolf had sent her, she guessed that this was just the way it was going to be tonight.

Gregory's face shone with indifference.

"Okay," Nancy shifted the weight from one foot to the other awkwardly. "I guess I'll see you later Rudolf," she waved to him, still in her stupor of bewilderment, trying to catch up, as Gregory had already begun walking away to lead her above.

"Until later, Nancy," his small voice called after her as she vanished from view.

He sincerely hoped Gregory was on good behavior this evening.

- O -

Nancy tried her best not to laugh as Gregory lifted them through the air. The boy hadn't said a word since they left Rudolf's company. Deep within her mind she wondered if he felt awkward around her after their interesting little hug encounter. Her wind blown face looked over to him discreetly.

His features were utterly blank.

Nah. She decided. He's fine, she concluded. But still. What possessed him to take her out this night. She was almost disappointed by his lack of teasing and ill mannered jokes. _Almost_. Maybe he was making an effort to be nice?

She looked to his face again. Not so discreetly.

His features twisted into a sneer. "Why do you keep gazing at me?" he demanded, his dread locks and white hair plait tumbling around in the night breeze.

Maybe not. She smiled wanly at him. "Because you're _beautiful," _her voice reeked of sarcasm.

His hand twitched and she felt her fingers slightly slip from his hold. This time, she's the one who clasped tightly. If she was going to skydive, she wanted it to be on her own terms.

Gregory's face twitched. It took him a few full minutes to understand that she had been joking. He felt foolish. He felt the blood of the deer he had devoured earlier flood up into his cheeks.

Nancy actually felt bad about her remark. He looked flustered. Well, that was unexpected. She didn't know Vampires could blush.

She spoke quickly to try to divert his attention. "There," she pointed below them. "The materials I need are there," she looked over nervously at Gregory.

He nodded silently before following her directions and lowering their forms back to the world's surface.

Nancy felt giddy as they glided downwards, Gregory was a more reckless flier than his younger brother. He didn't seem to care about decelerating. Especially when it came to landing. Nancy tried her absolute hardest not to whoop in excitement as they narrowly dove through the trees to reach the darkened forest floor below. Nancy tumbled to the soft mossy ground as Gregory released his hold on her hand.

She rolled over in the moss for a moment before pushing herself upward. She sat up on the soft tickling tines of the undergrowth before she began ripping chunks of it from the moist soil.

Gregory leaned himself against a nearby low hanging tree bough. He watched Nancy as she worked.

Time ticked on.

His gaze was really starting to unnerve her. "Could you please stop staring at me?" she snapped finally as she dislodged a large chunk of moss.

Gregory smirked at her and brushed a bit of dirt from his trench coat. "You are the one who began this game," he quipped back easily.

She could have punched him in that moment. She decided to do the next best thing. "Yeah, well, if you wanted to go on a date with me so bad, you could have just asked?" she asked casually, not even looking up from her work.

The stunned silence that followed her off handed remark was hilarious. Nancy let her lips quirk into a large smile.

"I am doing no such thing," he practically growled at her.

Had he done that a week ago, she would have been terrified, but she was used to his antics by now. He wouldn't hurt her. Maybe let her fall out of the sky, but he wouldn't hurt her. "You could have fooled me," she shrugged her shoulders, still never looking up from her work on the ground beneath her.

Gregory did growl this time. "Please inform me of my behavior so that you won't get the strange opinion that I am courting you," he grumbled at her and kicked a nearby rock with his boot.

Nancy actually laughed at that. "Okay," she giggled to herself.

Gregory's face seized in confusion.

Nancy's laughter hitched when she looked over to his expression. She started gasp laughing. "I was just joking with you," she managed to choke out to him.

Gregory failed to see the humor.

Nancy wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "Don't look so serious, sheesh," she huffed airily at him.

He exhaled loudly before crossing his arms at her. This just wasn't how he expected their outing to go. He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, but he certainly didn't picture it to be quite this annoying.

Nancy shook her head from side to side. He had shut down. He was such a five year old. Rudolf and Anna were probably more mature than him at this point. She laughed quietly to herself. She had been just joking, but now she really was starting to get the feeling that this was supposed to be a date. That would actually make a small bit of sense: his random silences, lack of regular teasing, blushing, and his tantrum over her accusing this of being a date.

_Yeah_. She was convinced. It had to be a date. She knew all too well the panicky feeling you get when a date doesn't go the way you planned. She was starting to think that Gregory did too.

Her fingernails dug deep into the ground as she peeled back a larger layer of moss. She found herself feeling flattered. 'And here I was thinking that the boy didn't like me.' She glanced over to his pouting figure.

Huh? Now that she thought about it. He was kind of cute in that strange old world sort of way. His punkish clothing was just icing on the cake really.

She began humming tunelessly to herself. She honestly wasn't thinking about romance right now was she? She had to be insane. _Man_ that cockroach hex must have been powerful.

Gregory cleared his throat to interrupt her musings.

Her head whipped in his direction.

"I asked you what you needed this moss for?" He looked grumpy at being ignored.

Her mind went blank for a moment.

When his question actually hit her, she wanted to scream and run away. Lying to Gregory never really seemed to go over well. "Well, I'm making an incantation," she paused to look back down at her work. "To protect myself."

Gregory's mouth twitched into a frown. "From my family?" he questioned blindly.

"No, no, no," she dismissed his theory with a smile. "There are just some bad spells out there that are trying to get me."

Gregory looked annoyed. "That's quite vague." He squashed a rolly polly under his boot.

Nancy shrugged and pulled the final green patch from the earth. "It's all you need to know," she spoke smoothly.

He changed the subject. She wasn't going to budge anymore information. He could tell. "Why do you need materials for magic in the first place?" That question had been burning in his mind for a while now. He had thought magic folk could just use magic as they damn well pleased. But this girl had all varieties of strange rituals he didn't even know existed in the magic world. Granted he didn't know much about the magic world. Even if he was an inhabitant of it.

What is this, an interrogation? Nancy stopped her assault on the ground and placed her last square of green to the side. "Magic is all about reaping what you sow," she said very simply.

He waited but she never elaborated.

She picked at her dirtied black fingernails.

Gregory watched her silently as she stacked the piles of moss and then wrestled the bunch to fit under one of her arms. It never really occurred to him to ask her if she needed assistance.

She held her hand out to him. She was ready.

He grabbed hold of her without difficulty and flew them back as swiftly as he could.

The silence of their flight was suffocating. But not nearly as suffocating as the speed he was flying at. Nancy could barely breathe. She couldn't even yell at him to slow the fuck down. But before she could turn blue from the lack of oxygen they were already landing back in the cemetery.

She breathed deeply. Then refitted the moss that was trying to slip free from her hold before turning to address her guide for this awkward night. "Gregory," she called him to attention.

He was overly surprised to hear his name come out of her mouth. His bored look disappeared in an instant. She had his full attention.

She smiled coyly at him before sauntering closer.

Gregory started to wince. Was she going to hug him again? With all that dirt and grime on her body?

He started to recoil, but she grabbed hold of his torn jacketed shoulder and tugged his face downward. Her lips made brief contact with his sallow grey check before retreating. "Thanks for the date," she smirked up at him from their still close proximity. "Just talk more next time, okay?"

She laughed loudly at his horrified expression before slipping herself down into the hole to the crypt.

All was silent in the graveyard, save the sound of the wind rattling the leaves in the tree tops.

Gregory stood.

Staring.

Staring at the hole Nancy had just pushed herself into.

His emotions were unreadable. His feelings were unreadable. His thoughts were unreadable.

His form dissolved rapidly into that of a grey speckled bat.

He flew away briskly into the light of the moon.


	10. Chapter X

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises. *ROAR*

Author Note: WOW!.!.!.! Oh. La. La. La! You reviewers make my life ;D! You really do encourage me to keep the story going! I apologize for the wait, midterms and finals tore me a new asshole. Not fun. Really not fun. Life also squished all over me, but things are settling...sort of...BUT I'll get this story out though! I promise! hmmmm...*contemplation face* Don't worry my lovelies (if you're still out there xD)! This boat still has a treacherous way to row, I guesstimate about 50 or so chapters! I wish I was kidding. *gets my writing face on* Let's do this!

- O -

Nancy let a few gasping giggles escape as she turned her corner. Her hand brushing past a particularly large spot of mildew on the wall. She could barely contain herself. She felt like such a Badass. She just loved teasing that twerp. Her mind flashed with the image of his much too pale angry wrinkled features. Boy had he looked pissed.

Yet she couldn't find it in her heart to feel bad about it.

Her fingers grappled into the soft moss trying to retreat from her hold. After all, it was only a little innocent peck on the cheek right? Just a little devious peck, nothing more, nothing less. An impulsive decision. She sighed heavily as she threw the heaps of green onto the floor and settled the chunks neatly onto her painstakingly drawn pentagram. Hands flew out from her sides to begin the process of transferring the chalky design onto the rooted dirt beneath the moss. Her fists pounded down laboriously. Her mind rolling. Once confident hands began to shake and falter as her mind filtered through the nights events.

His contorted shocked face slammed itself beneath her eyelids.

Spoke too soon. The guilt had hit.

She had crossed a line, hadn't she? Her mood deflated instantly at the realization, the image of a once joyous bounce house crumpling down to the floor.

That boy was hundreds of years old. A little fucking kiss on the cheek was probably a marriage proposal back in his uptight day. Her fingers furled into her palms at the thought, smacking even more furiously at her work on the ground. She really needed to get her mind back into a place of intelligence. All the troubles that surrounded her little existence, she had no place to sit around and worry about some insensitive crass brute of a boy.

She heaved her body forward to press down her weight to the moss beneath her outstretched palms.

Why did he illicit such strange emotional responses from her? Anger, terror, amusement? She just couldn't peg him into one place. She stared down at her hands. "Why does it even matter?" she muttered gruffly aloud. Her fingers and hands changing red from her continued push of pressure. She eased up and began to run her filthy fingers unconsciously into her dark curled hair. The bastard was probably fine anyway. That boy didn't strike her as the panicking type. He was probably just grumpily brooding around the caves in his usual style, kicking at all offending particles of dust and pebbles. Her mouth quirked to the side at the easily conjured image. Her fingers rode down the side of her neck and settled at the base of her spiked choker. With gentle pressure, she fiddled with one of the spikes. Her thoughts shifted.

He had a necklace like her's didn't he?

Her eyes flitted down to her hands mindless play. What the hell was that about? His whole family looked every bit as old fashioned and stoic as the era they emerged from, while _he_, the rebellious teenager, could have easily passed as a modern day anarchist. She would have to make it a point to ask him...right after she apologized. Fuck. She _did_ have to apologize _didn't_ she? She had crossed all sorts of lines with this one. Never mind the boy's probably Victorian ideals of women, he was a _fucking_ Vampire! What the hell was she doing? What had she been thinking?!

Breath hissed out from behind her clenched teeth.

- O -

With the stealth of a practiced cave dweller Nancy meandered her way through the murky cave passages. The abysmal masses of grey had her shutting her eyes as a headache began to form. "Goddamn, was it always this dark in here," she muttered into her jacket collar. Pebbles and dry soil slid down from a rock fixture by her hand. 'Where the hell is everyone?' She began to wonder as she made her way past the main chamber of the cave. She never remembered it being this hard to find any of her Vampires. They tended to spread out in the catacombs. 'Maybe they're all together?' Just as the thought slipped through her mind she caught the deep baritone of Frederick's voice.

"What do you mean(-)come to rest?"

Her ears managed to make out as she stumbled her way closer.

"Gregory told me he(-)Nancy."

The sound of her name leaving Rudolf's mouth had her freezing in her tracks.

"My oh my! Maybe(-)away together!"

Anna's lilting sing-song voice had her feet moving before she could stop them. She shuffled hurriedly to catch the last half of the little vampire's words.

"Love was just under my nose all along!"

'Love? The fuck?!' Nancy's face twitched into a frown. 'She better not be talking about me.' Nancy wanted to grumble. But her sour mood dissipated as she started to put the bits of the family's conversation together. Did Gregory not-

"The Witch must have cast him away! We never should have let the likes of her kind dwell here!" The barely contained fury in Frederick's tone echoed around the walls of the cave.

He didn't come back. He didn't come back! Holy shit! He _didn't_ come back! Her stupid kiss on the cheek made that freak run away! What the _fuck_! Nancy held her head as breathing became more than a bit difficult. What a freakin' mess. She really was nothing but trouble huh? There just wasn't a right place for her. Not even among bloodsuckers.

"Now now dear, we don't even know if Nancy is missing. We should inquire her side of this matter, don't you think?"

Freda's honeyed voice glided out to Nancy's panicked ears. Oddly enough, the woman's cooing was soothing her scattered frantic thoughts. It's alright. This is going to be alright. She managed to squeeze the lies into her brain. With a small bit of effort she pushed herself from the damp cave wall and strode right into the crowd.

Freda's face lit up with a small practiced smile, her hand stopping its gentle pats to her husbands great clothed shoulders. Rudolf almost appeared to shrink away into Anna's excited side, in what appeared to be shame. But Anna, of course, greeted Nancy in the same manner as always. "Good day! Dearest Nancy!" Complete with a bright full toothed smile.

Under regular circumstances Nancy would have laughed at the awkwardness of the inhabitants of the room. But this was no regular circumstance. A family of Victorian Vampires were missing their prized eldest heir, and it was completely _her_ fault. That was all the reason she needed to not crack a smile. All it seemed she could manage was a small nod in Anna's direction. Her eyes were set on the shocked and angry pale features of the patriarch in the room.

"You dare come before us!" He shouted at her, fangs gleaming, as he swept a great hand to his side to dispel the frantic aid of Freda. In great strides he destroyed the precious distance between him and the Witch.

Nancy scrunched her eyes closed and fought the frightened tears. She could feel his harsh frigid breath on her face. She could hear Anna's choked sobs nearby. "I-I d-d-d-on't know w-what your t-talking about-t," she stuttered, absolutely pathetic.

The breathing stopped and she felt the angry massive aura step away from her person. Her bleary eyes opened to see the almost skeptical expression of the Vampire before her. "W-where is G-Gregory?" she added for good measure.

Frederick recoiled as if struck. A few charged moments passed. Anna sniffled from somewhere beside her.

"Then...you do not know his whereabouts," he stated rather than asked. His face took on an exhausted expression.

Nancy felt the cold hand of guilt grab her stomach. "N-no."

The whole room seemed to exhale. The tension began to settle, but anxiety began to take its place.

"You were the last in his presence, how is it that you do not know?" He rounded on her again.

Nancy fought with herself not to jump in surprise. She swallowed her discomfort before relaying her useless bit of information to the worried family. "He dropped me off, and t-then, poof! He became a bat and flew away."

Her stomach clenched as Frederick's face took on a pained quality. "Then he is still in the world above..." he spoke more to himself.

"Rookery!" Freda breathed out in terror for her eldest.

Frederick's hand reached out to clasp onto her now shaking form.

Fat tears began to slide down Nancy's face, but she refused herself the opportunity to really cry. She was going to fix this. She was going to find him. 'I'm a fucking Witch after all!' She quickly wiped the leather of her jacket across her eyes before making a swift retreat back to her cavern.

- O -

Blue candles flickered as she worked. The wax dipped down the length of the candles in splotchy crooked lines. The normally dark mildew and grey rock of her back wall was nearly indiscernible from all the glistening wax.

In both of her hands she clenched a flaming blue dripping candle. Her fingers burned from her work. "Ah, that should do it," she breathed as she took a step back to admire her progress. She was careful not to step on her still halfway done chalk and moss work on the floor. It's never good to mix spells. _Definitely_ never good. She sidestepped the pentagram easily and began to remove her shoes. The buckles on her boots jingled as she slipped them off her feet using only her toes. With the grace of a primate she reached down, candle still in hand and wiggled a finger free of the wax that had dried over her clenched fist. Carefully she used her freed digit to guide her socks down her feet to discard them on the floor. "There, that's all the requirements," she muttered to herself. Her hands rose to make a set of parallel lines. Lids closed easily over her eyes as she felt the comings of a magic trance coming on. She took a deep breath. "Hear me, wise ones, old ones, those who dwell above; hear my call and hear my voice, hear my prayer: Send to me-"

"Nancy dearest! Nancy dearest!"

Nancy's eyes flew open and the magic sapped itself away from her body.

"Nancy! Dearest Nancy!" Anna launched herself threw the tunnel. Nancy could hear her calls growing louder.

In misery Nancy watched as her three hours of work disappeared before her very eyes. The wax had already begun to gradually recede its way back up the wall and into her candles. Her hand clenched tightly as the remnants of wax fell from her closed fist. She was really going to have to give Anna a good talking to after this ill timed interruption.

"Nancy!" Anna's voice boomed out as she finally came into sight. Blonde locks falling back into place behind her after her quick jog through the caverns.

Before Nancy could voice any of her discontent Anna spoke.

"Brother Gregory has returned!" and just as quickly as she had come the sprite-like girl turned on her heel and dashed away.

Well, then.

That's good I guess.

Small dregs of annoyance and relief began to filter through her system. A little anti-climactic but meh. At least the butt-hole was back. Still, it would have been nice to actually use her magic for something legitimately useful. Oh well. Another time then.

With an exhausted puff, Nancy sat up from her crouched position on the floor and rubbed the back of her neck.

- O -

In, nothing short of a bad mood, Nancy made her way through the cavernous catacomb. Luckily it was all to easy to find the Vampire family this go around. With all the over joyous squealing and keening going on. What a doting family. Honestly, it made her a bit sick. But in the jealous way.

Frederick caught her eye as she entered the room and he graced her with a nod of recognition. 'I suppose that was an apology?' she wondered briefly as her eyes flitted around the room. Rudolf gave her a small bashful smile as their eyes met, and she attempted to return the look but she suspected that is was probably more of a grimace. Anna latched happily onto her arm the moment her head turned. "All is well Nancy, all is well," the little girl practically chanted as she tugged on Nancy's jacket.

With a practiced ease, Nancy reached a black nailed hand down to pat Anna affectionately on her blonde little head before moving her way forward toward Freda. She was fussing with the apparent singes on her eldest son's already tattered trench coat.

"Goodness Gregory, you gave us quite a fright. Not returning before these eve hours," she scolded as she reached a motherly hand up to wipe a small bit of soot from her son's face.

Gregory ducked away angrily. "Stop this incessant fussing, I am unharmed."

"Nonsense, you told me you had a run in with that awful Rookery and I must be certain you are unscathed."

Gregory's frown deepened, if that was even possible.

Nancy felt the beginnings of a smile lift the corners of her lips. "Heh," a small chuckled managed to escape before she could stop it.

Gregory turned his head instantly. His eyes barely met hers for a moment before he moved his head away.

Curious. Nancy's laughter ceased immediately. Honestly intrigued, she took a few steps closer. "I'm glad to see that he made it back," she smiled earnestly up at Freda, pointedly ignoring Gregory.

Freda returned the gesture immediately. "Why yes, we are quite glad to have him back," she smiled happily down at her scowling boy. "Gave us quite the scare he did," she pulled at his ear teasingly.

Nancy openly laughed at that.

Gregory swatted his mother away without delay and sauntered his way out of the room.

Nancy watched him leave in open amusement.

- O -

'Never mind, this is _not_ amusing,' Nancy thought with a scowl. 'It's just plain obnoxious.' Since the prickled pussy cat's return he had made five accounts of blatantly ignoring her presence. Which, in all honestly, shouldn't bother her. But for some reason it was just getting way under her skin. 'I get it, I shouldn't have kissed your stupid fucking cold ass cheek. My bad, I won't do it again, but come off it with this high school bullshit!' Is what she wanted to say to him. Which wouldn't have worked and she knew it, simply because he wouldn't have any clue as to what she talking about. 'This sucks,' she pouted and sat herself down against the tunnel leading down to her end of the cave. She just felt so restless. At the very least she wished that he would just fight with her or something. Her eyes peeked up over her crossed arms. Maybe that's it, maybe I'm taking a friendly approach and instead of apologizing, I just need to provoke him. 'Yeah, a few jabs about his stupid jacket and we'll be right back to our weird unstable friendship-thing,' she thought with a small grin. With a heave and a ho, she pushed herself back up onto her feet and felt her way down into the sleeping chamber of the Vampires.

"They're all asleep already," she mumbled dejectedly to herself as she observed the complete set of suspended Vampires. Their bodies swaying ever so gently as they hung gracefully from the ceiling. They were kind of haunting and pretty to look at in this state. She pondered this as she wove her way carefully around their bodies, extremely weary of making an offending noise. 'This is so dangerous,' she thought as sweat began to pour down from her temple. 'Wait, why the hell did I walk down here in the first place?!' she scolded herself for getting entranced by the Vampire family's beauty. No wonder they were so dangerous, she didn't even realize what she was doing until she was already doing it. Walking in on their sleeping domain. They could kill me in an instant and never even realize that it's me. 'For fuck's sake, do I have a death wish?' Nancy argued with herself as she sat down on the moist ground to further admire the Vampire family. Anna's porcelain doll face, her long dark lashes sweeping across her all too pale features. They all had long beautiful eyelashes she soon realized. Even Frederick the Great. Haha. They all had a strange sort of ethereal beauty about them. Her eyes drifted to Gregory. Even in his sleep he looked displeased. She smiled and stood from the ground without a thought. Her legs carried her to stand only a few feet away from him. God did she want to punch him in the face right now. He was annoying her so much, it just wasn't fair. Taking a deep breath she stepped back away from the boy and made her way back out of the cavern without so much as a look behind her.

- O -

Gregory opened his eyes at the last sound of the girl's retreat. He was so completely confused. In all accounts. His fly through the above world had done nothing to calm the frantic and terrified feeling inside of him. She had hugged him. Worse yet, she had _kissed_ him. It was deplorable, to be so shamed by a Witch, of all things. No one in his life had ever been granted the permission to touch him like that. Not even his long dead betrothed. It was unacceptable. He was a Vampire. Great fears didn't exist in his life anymore. He was immortal. So why on earth did he feel so unnerved. Her very being unhinged him. It took every bit of his willpower not to open his eyes and snap that sodding Witch's neck. That was another matter. Why had she come to stand before him like that? Why would she seek his presence when he had so openly denied it to her? It was a mystery, and not one he was very keen on discovering.


	11. Chapter XI

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Vampire or The Craft (the universe of my OC) and all depictions done are out of love for their respective franchises.

Author Note: I'm so sorry these chapters take so long guys! I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUUU! And your reviews are like magic to my creative soul! I really mean it! They really keep me motivated to write this story! So just think about it, the more lines you guys drop me, the more I'll drop for you ;)! It's a bit of give and take, but not really. Haha! I'm just super happy if you guys are enjoying the story and I just really love to hear what ya'll have to say! So don't be scared of that little box on the bottom ;)!

- O -

Smooth black backs scurried along the undersides of her arms. Her hands balled up into claws. "Get off!" she rasped. "Get the fuck off of me!" Her throat was raw from her cries. She screamed desperately as the swarm grew in its might and began to lay their prickly legs across her face. One even went as far as to scamper by the corner of her eye. "Please! For fuck's sake!" Her arms drew up from the ground before she slammed them back into the damp earth. All at once the illusions began to dissipate. Each and every sticky slithering insect disintegrating from her rattled form. Her wide eyes blinked open in nervous relief as she watched the roach on her cheek suddenly fall away into the air. Breath barely made its way through her lips as she let her head fall back against the ground and let the soil saturate her hair. "W-Wow," was all she managed to mutter. "...This is getting bad." She moved her aching limbs to the side."... I couldn't even tell that I was sleeping," she squeezed her eyes closed.

A few moments passed in beautiful silence.

With shaking palms she lifted herself from the muck on the floor. 'Wait a minute-' Slightly horrified, she rubbed the grim between her fingers. These hexes weren't interfering with the natural magic were they?! She jumped in hurried surprise. The sounds of twittering bugs could be heard and felt moving just beneath the rocky floors surface. "Are they-" she nearly knocked one of her candles over in shock as her feet suddenly stood her from the ground. "Oh God!" Nancy began pulling at her hair and screeching in severe annoyance.

Those fuckin' _illusions_ were eating the natural magic in her tavern.

"I didn't even know that was possible!" she screamed with her broken voice. Her body fell into a squat as she began to rock back and forth on her heels. 'Think think think think! C'mon Pooh Bear _think_!" The heels of her hands pushed roughly against her eyeballs.

A suffering moment of silence passed.

"...I got nothin'," she admitted uselessly to herself. Her hands let up on the pressure as her red bleary eyes opened to gaze around her seemingly safe tavern. Blowing a disappointed raspberry at nothing in particular Nancy ultimately decided to just give herself a break for the moment and pop her head up to the surface world for some real air.

- O -

Dusting off her dirtied blue jeans and giving a small squint at the fading sun on the horizon Nancy zipped up her jacket before heading off to the morgue. "I could sure use some fresh fruit and some indoor plumbing," she mumbled tiredly. Her arms easily sliding behind her head as she strode her way over to her practiced and marked path to the gravedigger's all too cozy lodgings. Now that she though about it, her jean legs were pretty caked in mud. 'I wonder if he'll be out long enough for me to do some laundry,' she thought idly to herself as she hopped over a tree stump. "Shit," she cursed at the crunching of her shoes. 'There's that damn man now,' her ears had just barely managed to catch the steady rhythm of the grave digger's whistling. Sucking in a breath of air she began to crouch and army crawl herself to the back of a tall headstone. With a last wiggle she managed to fit her body completely against its stony surface.

"...I coulda' swore tha I heard somethin'," she heard the thick roll of his Swedish accent as his footfalls neared her.

She held her breath as his dirtied boot almost grazed her hand. 'Shitshitshitshitshitshit-' her inner mantra hummed as she pushed her back anxiously against the shadow of the headstone. 'Don't look behhhhinddd youuuuuu,' she ground her teeth together as she tried to roll herself into a bush while the grave dwellers back was turned.

Fate had other plans.

A fat glossy beetle flew down from the tree above and landed squarely on Nancy's forehead.

Nothing could not stop the practiced scream that escaped her throat. She flew up from the ground, disregarding the situation entirely and proceeded to flail around madly. Her arms swiping and beating her own head.

She was the picture of insanity.

"Woah! Great Nessy's beard!" She somehow heard the gruff man's voice through her hysteria.

She heard him approach her.

"...Are you alrigh' Lass?" he implored at her now crumpled still crouched figure.

Nancy's eyes were wide as she stared at the ground. 'Well, mother of all suck, how in the hell do I explain this one?!' With a calming breath through her nose she began to think fast.

"Lass?" he ventured even closer.

Nancy began to cough loudly and threw her face into her jacketed arm, effectively smearing her own make-up all over her face. With glassy eyes she looked up into the weather worn face of the grave digger. "...Oh my, I'm so sorry to have disturbed you sir," her voice heightened strangely. "I seem to have gotten lost and I can't find my way and I'm lost an-" she made a keening sound and took a hitched breath before hiding her face back into the crook of her arm.

"Now now deary," the man's voice somehow didn't sound quite so gruff. "C'mere and we'll get you all cleaned up an' have you on yer merry way."

Nancy turned her smeared face back up to look at him.

For all she knew this man could be a psychopath...but then again, what the hell was she? She'd already been to his house dozens of times without him knowing, and not once did she seem to stumble upon anything even remotely sinister. She was definitely more dangerous. _Definitely_.

She finally nodded her fake flustered little head at him.

- O -

This man's kindness knew no end. She frowned at herself in his bathroom mirror as she pondered this. He had asked her absolutely no questions, fed her, cleaned her clothes, let her use his shower, and the cherry on top of all this was the fluffy white bath robe he had left for her outside the bathroom door. What a goddamn joke. This just wasn't her life. Months of living underground, breaking into this man's house, barely getting by and now she's sitting plush in his bathrobe.

She could just shoot herself.

A soft knock sounded on the door. "Deary, how are you doin'?"

Nancy smacked a palm against her face. "...I'm well sir, thank you so much," she managed to blurt back at him.

"Tis' no trouble, when yer done, I've got some hot cocoa waitin' fer ya!"

Nancy had to stop herself from punching the mirror through. "...Stupid kind people...and their stupid kind habits..." she grumbled to herself as she pushed her nose ring back in and slipped on the stupid fuzzy robe.

- O -

"So," he began levelly. Gazing at Nancy kindly over the rim of his hot cocoa. "Where were ya gettin' to?"

Nancy swallowed stiffly before looking to him shyly. "To be quite honest, I was actually running away sir." She pulled at the rim of the overly fuzzy robe. Not a lie. "There really was no destination for me in the first place." Also not a lie. She looked to the small crack in the linoleum flooring.

She heard him hum in apparent understanding. She really wasn't too shocked that he wasn't surprised. He really didn't seem to be as stupid as she initially thought him to be.

"I figured as much," she heard him mutter. "But, all the same, you were absolutely filthy, no sense leavin' a young lady in such a muck," his face cracked in a weather worn smile.

She grimaced in return. Maybe I was wrong, maybe this dude is a creep. She started to analyze him discreetly, but then he spoke again.

"I'm just takin' a gander, but you must be runnin' from a bad boyfriend I'd venture," he gestured to her uncovered arms.

Nancy unconsciously folded her arms together at the attention. She forgot that the robe would leave her so exposed, but pushing past the discomfort. This was an opening.

She looked to the side before nodding her head solemnly. "Something like that," she ground out.

His grey eyebrows fell into a scowl. "Well, I say good riddance, to a man who can't care for his woman properly," he croaked out in angry concern. "Did'ja move to the isles for 'im?" He asked Nancy gently.

Nancy managed a few theatrical tears as she stared into her steaming hot cocoa. "Aye, I did sir," she whimpered. "From America!"

"From America! Blimey! Darlin', what a fools world this has come to be." He shook his head and scratched at his beanie cap with a dirtied hand.

"A fools world indeed," Nancy spoke softly before taking a final sip of her cocoa.

- O -

"Ahhh," she let loose a large stretch as she experienced the luxury of clean clothing. 'He even cleaned the scuffs off my jacket,' she noticed with a scowl.

"Well now, I say, that'll do ya jus' fine," His voice called to her from the kitchen entry way.

"Yeah," she acknowledged him with a small awkward smile. "I can take it from here sir, thank you so much for your help."

"Twas nothin', you jus' get yerself back onto a flight to those States o' yers," He gave her wrinkled wink before turning around to lead her to the door.

Nancy glanced quickly over to her dusty window before following the Gravedigger to his front door. 'I'm a damn bandit I tell you,' she thought with a shake of her head.

He waited quietly for her in the hallway as she zipped up her jacket and folded her growing curly hair up of of the rim.

"Thanks again sir," Nancy quickly bobbed her head in thanks before trotting her way down the steep cement steps.

"Wait!"

Nancy turned her head abruptly in his direction as the slender grave keeper hurried down to meet her.

"You best be bringing some light in this blackness," his gloved hands passed her a flashlight. "My best wishes to ya-"

"Nancy," she provided for him without hesitation. As kind as this man had been to her, he deserved her real goddamn name.

His laugh lines crinkled at her in a smile as she clicked on her complimentary flashlight and began her imaginary trek.

Nancy waved at him from a fair distance when she noticed that he watching out for her. She gave him a thumbs up before she veered down a hill in the direction of the tall iron gate at the west end of the graveyard. She could make her way back from there. No sense in endangering the tricky position of her Vampires to this cemetery's only other inhabitant. She would just have to be of absolute stealth from now on to avoid being seen by the kind grave digger.

She frowned deeply at the thought. The only decent human she'd encountered in weeks and now she to be absolutely certain that he never saw her again. She was beginning to really realize the full drawbacks to this on-the-run lifestyle.

"Well this sucks," she grumbled out, pausing briefly to gaze up at the milky white half moon. 'There's not really a choice though, is there?' she thought dryly moving her sight downward to a particularly interesting headstone.

It was enormous in its size.

The hollow eyes of an angel faced statuette gazed down at her. It's a wonder her eyes weren't drawn to it immediately. Billowing wet drapery glided down its marble body, rising and shining coolly in the white light of the moon. A single white limestone leg was raised to strike the dragon-like snake frozen in a feral snarl beneath its foot.

Nancy was awestruck.

'To my delightful Nora - May you conquer your demons in the afterlife as well - 1953 - 2003.' Nancy traced the raised surface of the smooth wording with her fingertips.

"Nancy?"

The Witch jumped from her trance at the sudden voice. In extreme relief her scattered thoughts immediately recognized the voice as Rudolf.

"I'm sorry Nancy, I did not mean to give you a fright," Rudolf smiled apologetically at her with a small tilt of his head.

She dismissed him easily. "It's all good Rudolf." She turned to face him just in time to catch his somewhat bewildered nod. A small smile slid onto her face.

The little Vampire child cleared his throat quite properly. "I saw you from above," he gestured to the moon. "My family has just returned from our hunt and I saw your figure, Is all well Nancy?" He asked her carefully, and with a slight tinge of discomfort.

Poor kid. Nancy eyed Rudolf's adorable Victorian clad form. 'Probably thinks I'm going to explode in a crying fit all over him again," she closed her eyes at the memory.

Rudolf sniffed at the air.

"I'm alright Rudolf," she said at last, turning her body back around to face the grandiose headstone. "Really," she gave him a small content smile.

Dust billowed off of Rudolf's nearly ancient state of dress as he crossed his arms at her. "This may be none of my concern but I've taken notice that you and my brother Gregory have ceased speaking after his disappearance," he spoke in utmost innocence.

Nancy's eyebrows furrowed. "Gregory?" She'd forgotten about all that. With all the other conflicts of the day, that particular one had happily fallen through the cracks. But here was Rudolf, acting the true part of curious little brother. How cute.

"Yes," Rudolf nodded slowly. "He insisted on taking you to gather your magic materials that eve, and if I may be so bold, I'd like to inquire about your current lack of communication with him?"

Ahhh, _Rudolf_. Ever the eloquent speaker. Gregory could certainly learn a thing or two from his charming little brothe-

"Wait a minute!" Nancy exclaimed loudly.

Rudolf barely had time to shield his delicate ears from her outburst.

"That was _so_ a date!" Nancy grabbed at her hair in dismay.

"Date?" Rudolf repeated in complete and utter confusion, all the while still keeping a steady hold over his ears.

'Making me believe that he was forced to be in close proximity with me, he had fucking asked for it!' her thoughts flowed and rambled. "I'm gonna stake his stupid neck-" Nancy huffed to herself as she stomped her way past Rudolf's shocked form.

- O -

'Dumbass can't even look at me now,' her thoughts still rolled as she kicked her way through the foggy graveyard.

Destination unclear, and her thoughts muddled she unknowing stumbled upon the booming voices of Freda and Frederick.

"Frederick, my dearest, we must give her time," she heard the great Vampire matriarch coax from the grove of trees nearby.

"Time!" Frederick boomed. "Time!? Freda, my darling, time is running out!"

Her eyes barely glimpsed his gesticulating arms as she crept her way closer.

Freda's jeweled hand reached forward to comfort her husbands shaking shoulders. Their voices became quiet and too distant to hear.

The moon shone brightly upon the couples' solemn figures.

Nancy observed the scene with an ever deepening scowl. 'One problem after another I tell ya, just when I think things couldn't get any more complicated I just have to go and overhear something like this,' her head shook in disbelief.

"You really shouldn't eavesdrop, it's quite unseemly."

'Shoot me in the face,' Nancy deadpanned to herself. She stood from her crouch. "And you really shouldn't ignore people," she smiled widely at him. "It's extremely rude."

Gregory scowled deeply at the Witch before letting out a noise that sounded a bit like a snicker. But who could tell, it could have been a growl for all she knew.

A few tense silent moments passed before Nancy let out the biggest yawn of her life. To hell with being mad, she was too tired for all this shit. She wiped her nose on her jacket sleeve before sending the grumpy Vampire a small goofy grin.

The disgust on his face was clearly coupled with some form of amusement. She could work with that. "How else am I supposed to know," She started. "What your family thinks of me, I mean," her eyes focused solely on her mud caked sneakers as she began to walk a circle around Gregory.

She was behind him when he responded. "...That's fair I suppose," his said evenly. "I do the same on occasion, I like to know my social standing."

Woah. Was this going to be an actual conversation? Nancy very nearly stopped walking, but forced herself not to falter. She wanted to see how long she could make this quasi-friendly conversation last. "Yeah?" she intoned."I thought your standing would be pretty clear, being family and all that?"

Her eyes flickered up to catch the annoyed look on his pallid face, for once it didn't seem to be directed at her. "It would appear that way, but being the first born son certainly carries its own burdens."

"Like what?" Nancy prompted gently, stopping her circular pacing to stand an acceptable distance away.

Gregory's split eyebrow rose in its customary fashion. "Why so curious?"

Nancy rubbed her lips together and popped a shrug. "No reason, just asking."

Gregory threw her a disbelieving look.

She laughed lightly. "Okay, I'm just a touch curious about your family, I mean, you guys have been Vampires together for what, like, centuries, there's got to be a lot of dirt there?"

"Dirt?" Gregory's nose wrinkled.

Nancy scratched the back of her neck. "Sorry, 21st century speak, _dirt_ just means, well... _history, _I guess_."_

He nodded to her in absentminded understanding. His pale hand twitched. "You would be correct in assuming there is much ..._dirt _between me and my family," he said in absolute seriousness.

Nancy's eyes crinkled in laughter.

"What?" Gregory held back a snarl.

"That's not quite how you would phrase that," Nancy informed him through her chuckles.

"You misinformed me then, the fault is not mine," he scowled deeply and crossed his arms at her.

This just made Nancy laugh harder. 'God, for being so old, he's such a damn child!' she thought humorously to herself.

Gregory stared at her in what he hoped looked like a threatening expression. Inwardly he found himself quite amused with the Witch, and if he forced himself to reveal his true opinion, he would find that he found her smile to be even more inviting than her initial fear of him.

"Gregory," Nancy purposefully used his name. 'Time to get some serious grilling done. Hopefully it won't spoil the mood?'

His dreadlocks swayed over his right shoulder as he quickly turned his head to her attention.

"Geeze, I don't mean to bring this up to make you mad or anything, but why did you take me out that night?"

His mouth opened quickly in response, " I did not-"

"Ah-ba-ba!" she shushed him swiftly. "Don't give me that crap, I talked to Rudolf and he said that you '_insisted' _on taking me that night," she spoke to him sternly, as a school teacher would her naughty protege. She didn't even know why she was digging this hole. There were much bigger fish to fry in her pool of issues. But for some reason she just wanted to get to the bottom of this one. It had nothing to do with her finding Gregory kind of cute. Absolutely _nothing_ to do with it.

Pshh! That's what she told herself at least.

Gregory merely blinked at her in response. Not at all the firecracker of denial she had been expecting.

His face remained blank for a moment more, before he looked her directly into her steel blue eyes. "...Because you're interesting."

This crap again?! Nancy wanted to rub her face in anguish. That's the same shit he had said to stop her from leaving! She didn't know what she had been expecting but _that _had not been it!

He spoke again, this time to the muddy ground. "I feel strange around you."

Nancy felt her inner annoyance ebb away and forced herself to remain silent.

He looked sideways at her, the lapels of his dirty grey trench coat obstructing his face. "At first it was a burning sensation, I had assumed it was hunger."

Nancy swallowed thickly.

"But then you had to go and bloody touch me, and hold me, and lay your lips on my face."

His expression looked so lost and forlorn. Nancy honestly felt bad.

"I feel most disturbed by your presence," he said slowly. "...I believe it was an attempt to try and understand it... That is why I took you out that night," His light eyes gazed at her intently, waiting and gauging her for a reaction.

Nancy kept her face blank as she studied the teenage Vampire. A half baked idea began to formulate in her brain. With a practiced smile she reached out for Gregory's cold clawed hand.

There was a small recoil at first but he surprisingly allowed her to grab hold of him. His eyes never left her face.

"Take me flying," she goaded him gently.

He gazed at her as if to say 'why'?

She rolled her eyes. "I want to try something, and I can't do it here," her eyes looked sideways through the forest clearing to still see the glittering gaudy clothing of the parent Vampires. "It's a test, to maybe help you understand."

Gregory followed her line of sight easily. His eyes narrowed back at her. "How can I trust you?"

Nancy huffed at him, "We're still going on about that are we?"

Gregory ultimately allowed his curious nature to take root. He looked up to the halved moon. "...Where shall I take you?"

Nancy shrugged easily. "I don't care, it's your choice."

His face appeared to deliberate for a moment before he tightened his hold of her smaller hand and took a great leap off of the mossy graveyard soil.

- O -

Before she knew it, Gregory had landed them in the loveliest clearing that Nancy had ever seen. The ebony roaring waves of the ocean were clearly visible from the height of the rock side and the moon shone in a distorted blur across each ripple on the great waters surface. Large land formations sprouted out along the green of the grass in an apparent gate away from the vast steepness of the cliff.

She had to stop herself from struggling free from Gregory's vice grip on her hand as they neared the very green grassy floor of it. She assumed that he now deemed her a flight risk after her previous stunt with him. She could hardly blame the boy.

He sent her a stony look from over his shoulder as he increased his grip and landed with her softly onto the world's unmovable surface.

Nancy hissed in relief as he finally relinquished his hold. "Jesus Mary and Joseph, that was painful," She muttered to herself while she cradled her poor appendage.

Gregory smiled sardonically at her. "I wouldn't have held so tight now, if you had not squirmed so much," he chided. "I even went out of my way to fly smoothly for you," He rolled his eyes and took a few full steps toward her. "I just don't want any surprises." He looked down at her from his height.

"Hmpf," Nancy crossed her jacketed arms. She honestly had nothing to say to that. He was right to be cautious. Can't really be mad at that.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Nancy finally lifted her head to stare up at him openly. His eyes looked almost grey in the moonlight, especially since they were contrasted so drastically with the dark hollows around his eyes. If she hadn't known better she would have accused him of wearing her make-up. She smiled at the thought.

Gregory's eyebrows rose at the appearance of the Witch's smile. Always so unexpected. It was quite irritating really.

"C'mon," she finally broke the air between them. As she turned to stride closer to the cliffs edge she turned her head to Gregory's still motionless figure. "Follow me," she reiterated.

His pale hand balled itself into his pocket as he matched his stride to Nancy's.

"Right here," She exclaimed after only a few seconds.

Before Gregory could get a word in she had suddenly fallen to the ground and sprawled her body out into the grass. She wiggled for a bit before deciding to place her arms behind her head.

He eyed her wearily.

"Come on," she said easily. "Join me."

He hesitated before placing himself delicately into the grass. He could hear Nancy chuckling at him.

"What are you? A princess?" she giggled at the strange way he moved, as if worried he might sully his already torn and stained clothes.

He growled lowly at her before throwing himself into the moist dew of the grass. His back to her of course.

She snickered before looking out at the stars. "They're beautiful," she breathed at the glowing expanse of outer space.

Apparently cooled by the subject change, Gregory took a moment before rolling onto his back.

Crickets chirruped and frogs croaked as the unlikely pair stared up in silence.

Nancy grew bored. 'Let's lighten the mood a little shall we?' she decided with a devious smirk.

"...Gregory," she mumbled to the sky.

"...hmm?" he grumbled from beside her.

"Have I ever told you that you look like a mouse," she flipped over onto her side to perform another overly friendly breach of conduct and reach out obnoxiously for his ears.

His face dipped into a large frown as he grabbed her hand before it could reach its destination. "No," he spoke venomously. His calm visibly and audibly breaking.

"Well you do," she smiled a crescent. "With those large ears of yours!"

Gregory's face bit into a defensive snarl as he too sat up to face her. "Yeah, well be careful. Some might mistake that large head of yours for that of a large dog!" He bit out, huffing before laying back down and turning his body away from hers.

His liberty spikes flattening a bit as his dreadlocks pooled around his angry head.

Nancy's face sputtered into a fit of wheezing laughter. "...I do have a bit of a massive head don't I?" she spoke finally, running her fingers through her hair amused.

Gregory rolled his eyes. "Enormous really," he provided with a microscopic smile.

"Haha," she chuffed. "That's why I made you fly us out here you know?"

Gregory turned his head to look at her in mock seriousness. "To let me know I have mouse proportioned ears?" he scowled in what looked like good humor. "How can I ever repay you?" he spat as he moved back onto his back.

Nancy wasn't fooled anymore. He was in a good mood. His mouth was actually even quirked in an odd sort of half smile. It was adorable really.

Damn was this trouble. This annoying boy was actually surprising her. She didn't know what the hell she was doing asking him to take her flying. Well she did. the plan was to get a free flight. She was such an idiot. It was freaking her out. She was having a really fucking good time with him. 'I smell trouble,' she thought with a scowl up at the moon. Cute boy. Friendly feelings. Small twinge of possible danger. She _did not _have time for this. I repeat: she _did not _have time for this. She was on the run and on an impossible mission of sorts. No romance for Nancy. Bad Nancy. Bad girl. Simmer down. She tried to tell herself but found it all feeling empty as she felt the steady beating of her own heart in her chest. She could feel her pulse pick up, and it certainly wasn't from fear this time. 'Oh damn, I'm gonna go there aren't I?' she asked herself. When she turned her head to see Gregory's profile illuminated by the moon she pretty much lost it. Impulsive lifestyle for the win.

"Hey," she grabbed his stupid attention. "..Can I try something?"

Gregory looked at her blankly.

She swallowed. "It's the reason I had you take us out here, the _real _reason," she stressed as his face began to dip into a disbelieving look.

He could do nothing more than stare at her.

Nancy blinked rapidly. This is so fucking stupid I should have neve-

"Proceed," his boyish voice chopped her inner berating in half.

Nancy clenched her hands into fists. 'Fuck I just gotta do this!' she cheered herself on, taking the plunge.

To Gregory's complete and utter astonishment the Witch leaned forward, captured his lips with hers and pulled herself away from him all in the span of one very packed second.


End file.
